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The title pretty much says everything: I'm using server-side filtering so I need Thunderbird to watch all folders for new messages using IDLE.

I've already tried enabling "When getting new messages for this account, always check this folder" but after restarting TB I did not have an IMAP IDLE connection open for every folder.
I've also tried setting mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new (which did not exist before) and mail.server.default.check_all_folders_for_new to true - nothing changed.

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I do not have experience with your environment, but I will try to help.

This mozillaZine article from May 2011 says :

The IDLE command is a extension to the IMAP protocol that lets the IMAP server notify Thunderbird when there is new mail by sending a command over the existing TCP-IP connection. If your IMAP server supports that you don't have to manually check for new mail or have Thunderbird poll for new mail every x minutes.

This seems to mean that your mail server needs to be correctly configured for IDLE to work.

The article also mentions an upper limit of 5 connections, meaning that only 5 folders can be watched, as one IMAP IDLE connection/session is necessary per each mailbox .

Questions:

Are all your folders connected to the same mail server ?
If not, is it possible that the servers for the defective folders are not configured for IDLE ?

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But there is an important fact not mentioned i the article: IMAP IDLE is designed to monitor only one mail folder (usually the INBOX) per connection. – Robert Nov 4 '11 at 12:20
@Robert: True : An IMAP IDLE connection/session is necessary per each mailbox (awfully wasteful on connections). The article I linked to from May 2011 mentions an upper limit of 5 connections, meaning that only 5 folders can be watched. – harrymc Nov 4 '11 at 12:54
By default Thunderbird allows only up to 5 connections to an IMAP server. May be increasing this number increases also the number of folders that can be checked? – Robert Nov 4 '11 at 13:01
IDLE on the server works fine (and since it's my own server I can easily check the number of active connections and in which state they are). I did increase the number of connections so that's not the problem. But a quick look at the TB sourcecode showed me that IDLE is used automatically on existing connections so all I need is TB to check all folders through separate IMAP connections. – ThiefMaster Nov 4 '11 at 13:44
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