This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

How do I permanently delete emails from my computer?

  • 1 reply
  • 4 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Zenos

Beachwalk43
Beachwalk43
more options

When one deletes emails from the trash on Thunderbird, are they deleted and overwritten (as Secure Empty Trash does on a Mac), or are they still recoverable from somewhere on the computer? If the latter, how does one completely delete and overwrite emails deleted from the Thunderbird trash file?

Thank you,

Beachwalk43

When one deletes emails from the trash on Thunderbird, are they deleted and overwritten (as Secure Empty Trash does on a Mac), or are they still recoverable from somewhere on the computer? If the latter, how does one completely delete and overwrite emails deleted from the Thunderbird trash file? Thank you, Beachwalk43

Chosen solution

Simplest: compact your Trash folders after deleting.

You could close Thunderbird, ferret about in its profile and delete the Trash folders, and of course you're free to use any 3rd party utilities for scrubbing erased files.

I've read of users who run Firefox from a batch which deletes any files which might store session-related data after Firefox has been closed. You may be able to adapt and adopt this approach too.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (1)

Zenos
Zenos
more options

Chosen Solution

Simplest: compact your Trash folders after deleting.

You could close Thunderbird, ferret about in its profile and delete the Trash folders, and of course you're free to use any 3rd party utilities for scrubbing erased files.

I've read of users who run Firefox from a batch which deletes any files which might store session-related data after Firefox has been closed. You may be able to adapt and adopt this approach too.