[Evolution] Elderly Evolution confused on filters

["Daniel L. Johnson" <johnson danl mayo edu>]

Dear Folks,

I write merely in case this is interesting; I don't expect a solution.

Evolution suddenly began losing folders and filters. I assume that a
limit of some sort was exceeded.  I have been unable to create new
filters, when I've tried, that function (that is the creation process
creates no error message, but no filter activity occurs). I can create
new folders, but can't sort incoming mail into them.

First, my incoming mail for which there was no filter, began sorting
into a subfolder (/On This Computer/Jounal TOCs/American Journal of Int
Med/, not that it matters); 
then, upon doing Folder-> Expunge one day, an error message notifed me
that a filter was being used that did not exist (but did not say what
would be used instead). 
Three of my most-used folders were abruptly deleted, and I looked around
and discovered that mail normally assigned to these folders is now going
into the previously unused /Search Folders/Unmatched/, which seems to
have become the inbox.

No mail is being lost, it's simply being triaged into unexpected
destinations 

I have an email trove that's 10 years old, containing about 29,000
messages in scores of folders and subfolders.

For reasons related to lack of support, and the need not to have
anything break that's working, I am using Evolution 2.4.1 / Gnome 2.8 /
kernel 2.6.19.7-0.1.x86.i686.cmov / rpath linux version one (conary
group-dist=1.0.5-0.15)

I realize that this makes my situation potentially uninteresting because
I'm so far behind, but I report it to you in case it reveals something
that could be of current interest.

Dan Johnson