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Where are my deleted emails are disappearing to?

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  • 4 have this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by Zenos

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The deleted emails are disappearing from my deleted emails file. I often have to refer to these in my business and nothing is saved from month to month. I hadn't noticed this happening until this week when I went to search for an email I was missing to see if I had accidentally deleted it. Everything before November 1st is gone. Does Mozilla purge deleted emails automatically and is there any way to prevent this?

The deleted emails are disappearing from my deleted emails file. I often have to refer to these in my business and nothing is saved from month to month. I hadn't noticed this happening until this week when I went to search for an email I was missing to see if I had accidentally deleted it. Everything before November 1st is gone. Does Mozilla purge deleted emails automatically and is there any way to prevent this?

All Replies (4)

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Mozilla doesn't purge but your mail provider may.

Does the account use IMAP?

Why on earth would anyone delete stuff they need to keep? Do you file useful paperwork in the wastepaper bin?

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I just started using Mozilla a few months ago because my Windows live mail quit working and there was no support. I hadn't noticed that my deleted emails were disappearing until recently. As far as I am aware, no one has access to my email account accept me and Mozilla. I have not purged the deleted emails but everything prior to November 1st is gone. I often have to check my deleted emails. Today I needed to look for one that was supposedly sent to me and I thought maybe I deleted it so I checked and nothing before November 1st is there. I don't need sarcasm or whatever you intended your comment to be. I need to know who is emptying my deleted emails. I often have to check there for past conversations as a matter of record and I do not print all conversations. If a file I have been working on closes with no problems then I eventually purge the deleted. I have had to go back 6 months or longer in some cases to retrieve deleted emails to prove someone is lying or that different events took place. So why I need them is not really important but the emails are important. Do you have anything helpful to add?

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File them, don't delete them. Take ownership. Business is about record keeping, amongst other things.

If you leave them in trash then they are likely to be purged as a matter of course. There are settings in Thunderbird about managing disk space and these may delete messages from trash as they reach a certain age. But you also need to consider that your email provider may have a policy for purging aged messages from trash, which is why you need to assume responsibility for these messages and not leave them in the trash.

It's not sarcasm, but incredulity that anyone would delete things they may need to refer back to.

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The attached pictures show where to find the settings in Thunderbird.

If you delete messages and they appear in Trash, they are occupying disk space. So you may as well file them properly; there's no difference in the space consumed, and you have a copy that is immune from housekeeping actions.