**Problem**
Searching in Thunderbird for Android only searches messages already synced to the device.
The optional server search is hidden behind a small toolbar icon, only searches the single
folder you started from, and gives almost no feedback: with no local hits you see a blank
screen, progress texts get overwritten while results arrive, and failures only flash as a
short toast. Users regularly conclude that "search is broken" (see the blank-screen reports).
**Proposal**
1. When a manual search finds nothing locally, show a clear message with a tappable prompt
to search on the server (instead of a blank screen).
2. Let the server search cascade: current folder first, then the remaining folders of the
account, then the other accounts - sequentially, skipping accounts whose backend cannot
search server-side (e.g. POP3), and continuing past folders that fail.
3. Show a persistent status bar with a spinner above the result list for the whole duration:
"Searching <account> / <folder> on server (3 of 14)" and "Downloading message 2 of 8 from
<folder>". End states stay visible in the list ("No messages found on the server",
"Remote search failed").
**Working prototype**
I have a working implementation on a fork (branch `feature/cascading-server-search`):
https://github.com/JustNotesa/thunderbird-android/tree/feature/cascading-server-search
including screenshots and a test APK in the releases. Happy to adapt it to maintainer
feedback and to the new message list implementation, and to submit it as a PR once the
feature is accepted. The implementation was built with AI assistance (Claude).