Why is the Deleted folder in Thunderbird cleared daily without the user permission?
The details of the problem are covered in a previous question (asked by me Pazzer earlier in the year) which appeared to have been resolved but the problem is now back. I do not believe that I have changed anything but now the items I put in the Deleted folder using the button below the summary screen are cleared from the folder no later than the day after being put in the folder. Often they seem to disappear within a few hours. I have tried using the file Properties and the Account Settings to extend the retention period but this has no effect. Only the Deleted folder is affected. I am able to move items to Trash and they are retained but if I move items to Deleted they disappear. Any ideas what is going on? Why do the retention period facilities not work?
All Replies (4)
Thunderbird's default name for the folder where deleted files go is "Trash". It seems likely that a folder named "Deleted" is one generated by your email provider and probably subject to their own retention rules.
I would:
- see if I can change retention settings for "Deleted" - go to your email provider's webmail portal for this;
- see if I can set Thunderbird to delete to Trash instead of Deleted.
I have asked my email provider (talktalk) about retention settings, whether they or I can alter them and whether they have any control over the Deleted file on Thunderbird. I could find no way of doing that on the webmail screens. I await their reply. I have set Thunderbird to delete to Trash and I believe that it is doing it. However, it does not list the deleted item in the Trash folder for some time (difficult to estimate how long as I have tried only two items and I am still (after 10 minutes or so) waiting for the second item to appear in the Trash folder). Any idea why it does not happen immediately?
Sorry about this -the items do appear in the Trash folder but in date of receipt order and one of the above was recent and the other was not, so I only saw the recent one immediately. The other was there but further down the date order list. So forget that as it is not a problem.
It gets stranger. On opening up one day after the above message was posted I find that:- 1 The Delete folder has disappeared 2 The Trash folder has been re-positioned to be the last folder below the Inbox and before the General Folders list. It still working as yesterday in that the Delete button sends an item to the Trash folder where it is held in date order. The Retention Period is set to 40 days but there are items in the Trash folder which are older than 40 days. Anybody any idea s about what is going on?