How do I stop Thunderbird putting deleted items in Gmail's Bin?
I'm using Thunderbird 38.3.0 on OSX. I'm one of those really annoying people who never empties the trash and uses it as a long-term storage system for things that aren't important enough to actually file anywhere but that might one day be useful.
When I first switched to Thunderbird, I managed (after a lot of hunting through forums, and using Tools - Account Settings - Server Settings - When I delete a message: Move it to ... ) to get it to put deleted emails into a folder called "Deleted", rather than into Gmail's Bin.
I've just realised that on 17 July that stopped working (presumably an update to Thunderbird, but I can't remember), so now I've lost a couple of month's worth of deleted emails (I've just copied the last 30 days worth back from Gmail's Bin).
Does anyone know how to make it go back to the earlier behaviour? There's no change visible in the way that the Account Settings look, and I have tried changing the settings and then changing them back just in case.
Alternatively, as I'm sure what I *should* be doing is archiving messages rather than deleting them, is there a way to make the default behaviour on hitting the backspace key be 'archive this message' rather than 'delete this message'? (Where 'archive' can either be Thunderbird's own or Gmail's All Mail.)
Thanks!
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All Replies (4)
You are correct to assume putting deleted items in the Deleted/Trash folder usually means you do not want it and gmail also assumes this. Usually, you have to manually empty the Trash or set it to do this automatically via Account Settings. Gmail imap folders reside on the server, so gmail automatically deletes items in that folder periodically. This prevents using up vital quotas and clears unwanted thrown out emails.
Gmail already keeps a copy of all emails sent and received in the 'All Mail' folder. It uses the 'All Mail' as an archive. The only reason you see emails in other folders is because the email in the 'All Mail' folder has labels applied to it, so that it shows up in the desired folder. Generally, you do not need to see the 'All Mail' folder as you will already see the emails in all your other folders.
this link has some useful info on gmail accounts.
Assuming your Account Settings are set up correctly. check here:- 'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Copies & Folders' for the gmail imap account. or right click on mail account in Folder Pane and select 'Settings' then select 'Copies & Folders' for the gmail imap account.
To Archive: select to read an email and either click on 'Archive' button or press the 'A' key.
Toad-Hall said
Gmail already keeps a copy of all emails sent and received in the 'All Mail' folder. It uses the 'All Mail' as an archive.
... except when they get put in 'Bin', when they get deleted after 30 days, which is what I'm trying to prevent (and, indeed, had previously been preventing).
this link has some useful info on gmail accounts. Assuming your Account Settings are set up correctly. check here:- 'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Copies & Folders' for the gmail imap account.
This is telling me how to get Thunderbird's Archive to play nicely with Gmail, not how to stop a a move to trash in Thunderbird from equating to a move to Bin in Gmail: is that the link that you meant to give me?
Thanks for your help, though!
It would seem from your info, recent updates have changed some options probably to do with fixing bugs, so that it is no longer possible to delete and auto move to a different folder outside of gmail.
I'm suggesting you only use 'Delete' for deleting items you really do not want.
The only other option of deleting and not moving it to the 'gmail trash' would be to use the 'mark it as deleted' option instead. This does not move the email.
One option I would suggest is to use the 'Archive' option and not the 'Delete' option if you do not want the emails to actually be deleted by gmail and you want the emails kept on the server. As you are aware, Thunderbird cannot control what the gmail server does with the gmail trash folder.
This just means getting used to using: select to read an email and either click on 'Archive' button or press the 'A' key (I use this as a keyboard shortcut).
Then the emails will stay in the 'All Mail' folder, but will not show up in eg: Inbox. So, should you ever need to access them they can be located in 'All Mail' folder.
The only other method, would be to : create some folders in 'Local Folders' synchronise the folder for offline use go into offline mode. Right click on highlighted email(s) and select 'Copy to' and 'Local Folders' select desired folder.
When you are certain that the emails can be viewed ok in Local Folders. then use Delete on the emails in the imap folder to move them to gmail trash - (which will be subsequently emptied by gmail).
Go back into online mode.
Delete still functions as before in the imap account. It removes older emails off server so that quota limits are not reached. It means you have a copy of those 'deleted' emails on your computer in your Profile folder in Local Folders; it becomes an archive of your older messages but releases space on the server. So, you should create a backup of your profile folder - just in case :)
Backups should be done periodically because you cannot be certain that you would not lose emails off the server or your computer.
Toad-Hall said
It would seem from your info, recent updates have changed some options probably to do with fixing bugs, so that it is no longer possible to delete and auto move to a different folder outside of gmail.
Sad face. It may well be that I was exploiting a bug without realising it, I hadn't thought of that.
The only other option of deleting and not moving it to the 'gmail trash' would be to use the 'mark it as deleted' option instead. This does not move the email.
I did try that while I was playing around, but it just seemed to leave them in my inbox with a little 'deleted' icon next to them, which rather defeated the point!
One option I would suggest is to use the 'Archive' option and not the 'Delete' option if you do not want the emails to actually be deleted by gmail and you want the emails kept on the server. [...] This just means getting used to using: select to read an email and either click on 'Archive' button or press the 'A' key (I use this as a keyboard shortcut).
I guess I'll have to get used to doing that. I'm sure my fingers will learn the new shortcut in a few months!
Thanks for your help.