I can only speak for Gmail, as that is a setting done on the website forGmail.

It's not GMail. I don't understand your answer. This is Thunderbird to which I'm referring.

Stop holding the shift key while deleting is all I have to offer. The keyboard shortcut to bypass the trash/deleted folder is to hold shift while the delete occurs. ie shift+Delete

But "Stop holding the shift key while deleting"? I've been doing that for years. Why all of a sudden does the trash folder come up empty? The folder is there but no e-mail are in it.

BTW, the trash folder only shows under "local folders". I don't know if that makes a difference. I think there used to be a trash folder somewhere else in the list of folders. Thanks.

My Gmail content was, if you were referring to a Gmail account there is a website setting that causes Thunderbird to delete immediately. Obviously, not relevant to your situation. On your comment, there are normally trash folders for each account.

@david, what is the website that I can go to to undo that setting? I never set it to delete all the trash in the first place so have no idea why it's happening. Thanks.

That comment of mine was only regarding Gmail, and you're not using that. So, I don't know what you're seeking.

I use a comcast address. Can you help with that? Is the problem only specific to Comcast? Thanks.

What are your settings for trash? You might try changing them to something else.

How do I find the settings? I may have mentioned that I didn't knowingly change anything. This just happened by itself. Thanks.

- click 'account settings' - for that account, click 'server setting'

Hmm... when I go to "move it to this folder" the trash folder isn't there. Is there a way to add it? Thanks. OH,, I do see that empty trash on exit is checked. I'll uncheck it and see what happens. Thanks!

I created a trash folder but the deleted messages are not going there. Here's a screenshot. Did I do the right thing? Thanks again for all of your help!

Ok, I did some searches on the xfinity site and deleting messages seems an active topic. When you delete a messages, what happens to it?

It disappears. As I said, they used to go into the trash folder. But then the trash folder disappeared also. I'm in a quandary. thanks.

I suggest checking the xfinity forum, as that issue appears there in several places.