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How to delete all "copies" (labels) of message in Gmail

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Matt

Cara_M
Cara_M
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The document here titled "Thunderbird and Gmail" says "Note that a message can have multiple labels (for instance, "Personal", "Travel", "All Mail" and "Starred"). In this case, a single copy of this message will be downloaded, but it will be displayed in all the corresponding Thunderbird folders."

I'm not finding this to be the case. I have multiple Gmail accounts sync'd to Thunderbird as imap accounts. I am tired of having to clean up multiple copies. If an email from Gmail comes into the inbox and I delete it from the Inbox - it STAYS in AllMail/Archive. If I delete from AllMail/Archive, it stays in Inbox.

Am I misunderstanding how this works, or have I missed the setting that makes this work? I've attached a screenshot from one account's Server Settings.

The document here titled "Thunderbird and Gmail" says "Note that a message can have multiple labels (for instance, "Personal", "Travel", "All Mail" and "Starred"). In this case, a single copy of this message will be downloaded, but it will be displayed in all the corresponding Thunderbird folders." I'm not finding this to be the case. I have multiple Gmail accounts sync'd to Thunderbird as imap accounts. I am tired of having to clean up multiple copies. If an email from Gmail comes into the inbox and I delete it from the Inbox - it STAYS in AllMail/Archive. If I delete from AllMail/Archive, it stays in Inbox. Am I misunderstanding how this works, or have I missed the setting that makes this work? I've attached a screenshot from one account's Server Settings.
Attached screenshots

All Replies (3)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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I follow the advice given here (Labels section), to not use the Gmail Trash but instead 'Just mark it as deleted', and also to not subscribe to All Mail (All Mail section). Does that simplify things for you?

Cara_M
Cara_M Question owner
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I will check the link - but i archive to “all mail” and clean it out periodically- so i need to see it.

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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All mail is the archive. If you delete a message, Thunderbird will move it to the trash folder and gmail will remove it 30 days later from the folder pursuant of their retention policies. Perhaps you just need to be more patient with the clunky IMAP implementation GMail use.