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.

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

IMAP Trash Not Synchronizing

  • 7 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 47 views
  • Last reply by christ1

more options

If I delete an item from my Inbox in Thunderbird it moves it to the Trash folder. However, that folder is not synchronizing with my IMAP server so the email still appears in the Inbox on other devices and does not appear in the Trash.

I've searched forums and the settings for a solution for the better part of this morning and I haven't been able to figure it out. Is there a solution to this issue?

If I delete an item from my Inbox in Thunderbird it moves it to the Trash folder. However, that folder is not synchronizing with my IMAP server so the email still appears in the Inbox on other devices and does not appear in the Trash. I've searched forums and the settings for a solution for the better part of this morning and I haven't been able to figure it out. Is there a solution to this issue?

Chosen solution

One step at a time.

Wrt deleting messages, try to compact the folder you deleted the message from. It should then not be visible anymore on other IMAP clients.

Right-click folder - Compact

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (7)

more options

... so the email still appears in the Inbox on other devices

What other devices? Are those devices POP or IMAP clients?

more options

My phone or other Windows based email clients that are all configured to IMAP. I had it working fine with eM Client and Outlook 2013 so it appears to be a setting with Thunderbird.

I tried creating other folders on my IMAP account to troubleshoot the issue. If I move an email on my Thunderbird client to an IMAP folder it shows locally but does not sync that change with the server.

Modified by masterapi

more options

Chosen Solution

One step at a time.

Wrt deleting messages, try to compact the folder you deleted the message from. It should then not be visible anymore on other IMAP clients.

Right-click folder - Compact

more options

Thanks! That worked. Is there anyway to automate the Compact so I don't have to go through the manual process each time I delete something?

more options

I don't think so. You might look for an add-on which places a button into the toolbar, to makes this a little more comfortable.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Modified by christ1

more options

Thanks again! I downloaded the Xpunge add-on and configured it to auto-compact every minute. That'll work for me.

more options

I don't think compacting that frequently is a good idea.

Thunderbird ha a built-in mechanism to trigger compacting folders automatically. Check this article for more information.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

When your issue has been fixed, please mark this thread as 'solved'.
Thank you.