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All Trash Messages over 3 Weeks Old are Missing

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by jl11

jl11
jl11
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I've used Thunderbird IMAP forever. Probably 20 years. I just went to retrieve a 4-month-old message from my Trash file and found all messages beyond 3 weeks ago were gone. "Empty Trash on Exit" is NOT checked (never has been, ever). "When I Delete a Message: Move it to Trash" is selected. Always has been. I've never manually removed Trash messages. I was wondering if maybe my mobile phone was able to change the Trash retention settings, but I see no control for that on Samsung's mail server, so I assume that's not possible from the phone.

Frustrating. I really need a message from 3 months ago. What did I do wrong?

I've used Thunderbird IMAP forever. Probably 20 years. I just went to retrieve a 4-month-old message from my Trash file and found all messages beyond 3 weeks ago were gone. "Empty Trash on Exit" is NOT checked (never has been, ever). "When I Delete a Message: Move it to Trash" is selected. Always has been. I've never manually removed Trash messages. I was wondering if maybe my mobile phone was able to change the Trash retention settings, but I see no control for that on Samsung's mail server, so I assume that's not possible from the phone. Frustrating. I really need a message from 3 months ago. What did I do wrong?

All Replies (2)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Depending on your email provider, the server may delete messages in the Trash folder after a certain time. With IMAP Thunderbird can only see what exists on the server. Check with your email provider.

Having said that, it sounds like a silly idea to me to use Trash as an archive folder. Thunderbird does have a built-in archiving feature. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/archived-messages

Wrt the lost messages, I'd backup stuff I don't want to lose. You could easily restore messages from a backup, assuming you did take the effort creating one in the first place.

Modified by christ1

jl11
jl11 Question owner
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christ1 said
Depending on your email provider, the server may delete messages in the Trash folder after a certain time.

I checked with my host and they do not delete IMAP email files (trash or otherwise). It's a mystery.

It's hard to know which messages will be needed 6 months or 2 years from now, but using the "Archive" feature is a good idea. Thanks.