On 9/22/22 17:49, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Could be on imap on the same local computer, but it's not.  The remote
IMAP servers don't have enough storage capacity, so over the years I've
had to make local copies of the older stuff, usually on an annual
basis.  So the message store in question lives only in ~/.thunderbird.
The local host isn't reachable from the Internet, so standing up dovecot
would be overkill.

You don't understand.

I'm telling you to create an imap server inside the same computer where Thunderbird is, and put your email in it, instead of inside thunderbird. It is still the same hard disk, so you don't win disk space, just better handling.

I see what you mean, that would work.  Local disk storage isn't and issue,
but I don't control one of the remote IMAP servers and they have a low
storage quota. 

But I noticed some oddities with the IMAP server message presentation
too.  For example, the Sent folder.  I've got three separate IMAP accounts
which show up under the root Send folder.  When you click on the root
you see all the sent items for all accounts, and when you click on a
specific account you see only those sent items.  But with 102.2.2 sent
items didn't show up in the account folder, but you could see them in
the root folder.  Things went back to their correct places once I downgraded
to 91, which proves 102 didn't muck around with the remote IMAP data.
I wonder if a MUA even can do anything to the IMPA server, besides
removing messages?

Regards,
Lew