When you delete an email from an IMAP gmail folder, that email is marked as deleted and when folder synchronises with gmail server, it is also deleted on server, so email will be put in gmail Trash. gmail will auto empty Trash after approx 30 days.

Emails are stored on server. Folders synchronise with server folders ; they are in effect one and the same. Deleting an email in gmail does not change gmails behaviour, it will put deleted items in the gmail 'Trash' or 'Bin' if uk.

I have just tested this by selecting to put deleted items in the 'starred' folder. It might say this in Thunderbird account Settings, but that does not happen in reality. The deleted item seemed to disappear and did not show up in 'Starred'. When Trash synchronised with server, deleted item now shows up in Trash in Thunderbird. This means gmail determined that a deleted item would go to trash.

If you do not want to delete an email then do not press delete.

So there is no way to make Thunderbird work like other applications and change the Trash folder to something else? If this is a limitation/bug in Thunderbird that is fine, I just want to understand why it is different that others.

In webmail account under Settings > Forwarding and Pop/Imap This has some settings you can select on how Gmail behaves regarding Delete.

In Thunderbird you can choose to 'mark as deleted' rather than move the email to Trash.

I've located a bug report which was created a while ago, but still seems relevant. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=533140

Thanks, that doesn't seem to work, only delay the inevitable. That bug does seem relevant, but still doesn't make me feel much better. I am interested in how other clients make this work. K9-mail on my phone works exactly how you would expect. I wonder what it is doing different and how that isn't possible on Thunderbird.

I've been on the gmail forum and made some enquiries.

quote: There is currently no option available to move a deleted email into a label other than Trash label in Gmail. When you delete a message, it stays in your Trash for 30 days and after that time, it will be permanently deleted from your account.

As suspected, even when I do not choose Trash or even if I do not subscribe to see Trash. It makes no difference because the 'Inbox' marked as deleted email will be deleted on the server because IMAP folders are one and the same as those on the server and gmail will put it in Trash anyway.

Even gmail's own website suggests you just mark as deleted and don't even suggest selecting the 'Trash'. Gmail will auto put it in trash anyway. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78892?hl=en

In K-9 this is also the case, by deleting it you're telling the server to move it to Trash. It's part of the IMAP protocol used by gmail and K9. However, it would seem you also have the opportunity to select a different folder for trash, but does this delete that email off server when sychronising, so being deleted in Thunderbird?

Sorry I cannot offer a solution for Imap. If using POP then that would be a different situation.

All I know is with K-9 it moves it to the folder I want it to go to. When I look at that folder in gmail it looks correct and the message does not show up in the Trash folder. I don't do anything on K-9 to make it behave differently. I am guessing it doesn't mark it deleted though, only moves it to the other folder. I would expect this is how it is getting around the issue.