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After reading emials and wanting to delete, I can only delete about 3 emails and my delete stops working.

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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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I do not get a lot of emails, only about 75 a day. However, when I want to delete them, one at a time, I can only delete 2 or 3 emails before my delete stops working. I have to go out of TB and into it again to delete another 2 or 3 emails. I have never had this problem before.

Also, my emails that I do keep are deleted after a couple of days. Where do I go to fix this.

I do not get a lot of emails, only about 75 a day. However, when I want to delete them, one at a time, I can only delete 2 or 3 emails before my delete stops working. I have to go out of TB and into it again to delete another 2 or 3 emails. I have never had this problem before. Also, my emails that I do keep are deleted after a couple of days. Where do I go to fix this.

All Replies (1)

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How often do you compact the folder (the one which you are deleting emails from) ? Compacting removes all hidden marked as deleted emails, thus cleaning up the file and reducing space. It is something you should be doing on a regular basis.

Deleted emails could be being removed from the 'Trash' by any of the following.

Imap mail accounts can auto empty the Trash when you exit Thunderbird.

  • Right click on imap mail account and select 'Settings'
  • select 'Server Settings'
  • uncheck 'Empty deleted folder on exit'
  • click on OK

There could also be a different retention policy on the 'Trash' folder.

  • Right click on Trash and select 'Properties'
  • select 'Retention policy' tab
  • select 'Use my account settings' - assuming account settings for disc space have selected 'don't delete any messages'
  • clickon 'OK'

Imap mail accounts may also have a setting set up via the webmail account to empty the trash every x days. Some servers will auto empty the trash, but usually the settings are more like 30 days. eg: gmail.