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

Natao arisiva ity resaka mitohy ity. Mametraha fanontaniana azafady raha mila fanampiana.

Thunderbird deleted my inbox messages

  • 1 valiny
  • 0 manana an'ity olana ity
  • 12 views
  • Valiny farany nomen'i Matt

jokelly
jokelly
more options

My Thunderbird Inbox Retention Policy is set to "Don't delete any messages" and "Always keep starred messages", but Thunderbird deleted 63 messages from my Inbox including starred messages. The attached screenshot shows the Activity Manager reporting the deletion at 5:43 PM [on 9/9/2022] and my Inbox folder property settings. All messages before 8/28/2022 were deleted so some of the messages were less than 2 weeks old. These messages were deleted from the Thunderbird application and on my provider's IMAP Mail Server but not on my phone.

When I manually delete messages using Thunderbird; they are moved to the Trash folder in the application, and to the Trash folder on my provider's IMAP Mail Server, and to the trash folder on my phone. These messages were not deleted using any other device.

I was running Thunderbird 102.2.1 (20220831174222) installed on September 6, 2022.

What setting in Thunderbird would cause this to happen and how should I change the setting to ensure this never happens again? Is there a way to restore emails deleted by Thunderbird?

My Thunderbird Inbox Retention Policy is set to "Don't delete any messages" and "Always keep starred messages", but Thunderbird deleted 63 messages from my Inbox including starred messages. The attached screenshot shows the Activity Manager reporting the deletion at 5:43 PM [on 9/9/2022] and my Inbox folder property settings. All messages before 8/28/2022 were deleted so some of the messages were less than 2 weeks old. These messages were deleted from the Thunderbird application and on my provider's IMAP Mail Server but not on my phone. When I manually delete messages using Thunderbird; they are moved to the Trash folder in the application, and to the Trash folder on my provider's IMAP Mail Server, and to the trash folder on my phone. These messages were not deleted using any other device. I was running Thunderbird 102.2.1 (20220831174222) installed on September 6, 2022. What setting in Thunderbird would cause this to happen and how should I change the setting to ensure this never happens again? Is there a way to restore emails deleted by Thunderbird?
Sarin'efijery napaingotra

All Replies (1)

Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Most likely they were deleted because of an IMAP server policy. Like mail over a certain age is automatically deleted.

IMAP relies on the mail server to be a canonical reference, so if the mail change folder they will be deleted from their existing folder. If the server has a retention policy of deleting trash after say 10 days. There is no setting in Thunderbird that will override it. If you mail provider changes the reference number of an email, it will be deleted and a new copy with the new reference will be downloaded.

Fundamentally if you want fine grained control without exception of what occurs on your machine. IMAP is not for you. POP offer only local control. IMAP does not.