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Spam (and political ad) immediately return after being deleted

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Using 38.5.1. I have a recent problem with spam and political ads. They go into my suspect mail folder (using an earthlink IMAP account). When I go into that folder in Thunderbird these emails can't be moved, deleted, or marked as junk.

When I try to drop and drag them to the trash folder that disappear and within a second or two reappear in the folder. I mark them as junk, they disappear, and then immediately reappear in the folder. I try to delete them using the delete button and they reappear. If I try a bulk delete (marking a number of messages and then deleting) only those particular messages pop right back up.

The amount of time is takes for this to happen makes me think that it happening locally and not at the server (i.e., the not a server check being done between the deletion and the message reappearing). Is something set in the email to prevent it's deletion or movement? If so, how can I "defeat it?"

Using 38.5.1. I have a recent problem with spam and political ads. They go into my suspect mail folder (using an earthlink IMAP account). When I go into that folder in Thunderbird these emails can't be moved, deleted, or marked as junk. When I try to drop and drag them to the trash folder that disappear and within a second or two reappear in the folder. I mark them as junk, they disappear, and then immediately reappear in the folder. I try to delete them using the delete button and they reappear. If I try a bulk delete (marking a number of messages and then deleting) only those particular messages pop right back up. The amount of time is takes for this to happen makes me think that it happening locally and not at the server (i.e., the not a server check being done between the deletion and the message reappearing). Is something set in the email to prevent it's deletion or movement? If so, how can I "defeat it?"

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I get something similar with an Exchange (or Office365) account. My solution is to move the messages out of the server's reach by moving them to Trash or Junk (as appropriate) in Local Folders.

IMAP is an "always on" service; messages can be pushed both ways and in pretty short order. You'd probably need to inspect logs or run Wireshark to check if there was any server involvement.