There are a couple of ways to empty the Trash other than manually right clicking on Trash folder and selecting 'Empty Trash'

You can set it up to auto delete emails on server: When downloaded email, not leave messages on server, so no copies are kept on server or Any emails older than a given number of days or when you delete a message

You can also set it to auto empty Trash on exiitng Thunderbird

This is done in Account Settings. Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings for the pop mail account or Menu icon > Options > Account Settings > Server Settings for the pop mail account

Select: 'leave messages on server' (if you want emails copies left on server)

optional sections - you can choose either or both Select: 'For at most eg: 32 days' Select: 'Until I delete them'

If you want to auto empty on exiting select: 'Empty Trash folder on Exit'

click on OK to save changes.

Personally, I perform a backup once a month. So if something should go wrong, between the monthly backup and the 32 days of emails on server, I could retrieve all or nearly all my emails.

It is also possible to create a Message Filter which you would need to manually run. This could set to delete all copies off the server or you would need to add a second condition to apply eg: an Age in days.

Cons: This requires manually running each time as it is not automatic.

Pros: But it does mean you can choose when to apply the Filter

Tools > Message Filters or Menu icon > Message Filters > Message Filters

Click on 'New' Give filter a suitable name Apply filter select: Manually run Do not select 'Getting new mail'

Select: Match all of following' select: TO and IS and type your email address

You could enter another condition such as : 'Age in Days' and 'is greater than' and choose number of days or 'Date' and 'is before' and enter a date but you would need to edit this before running each time.

Perform these actions select: 'Delete from Pop server' click on OK

Thanks for the suggestions. Actually, I never thought of the second one . . .set the filter for the "TO" field and that's pretty much what I need except for one step.

I don't want the filter to be automatic 'cause sometimes things that aren't necessarily trash will get "filtered" into the folder and I want to be able to do a quick scan, if I need to, before deleting from the server and possibly losing something. I was already planning on a manual run filter, so that's no problem; the only problem with this second method is that I'd love to be able to say that it's actually IN the trash folder somehow.

For example, if I set the filter so that the "TO" is me, and the "AGE" is something, etc., when I run the filter manually, it'll search through the folder and work. That's great if I only have the Trash folder selected. Trouble is, I have lots of filters and if I "run filters" on my inbox, there might be some instances where the parameters are met by emails I want to keep. So, the question is if there's any way, at the individual filter level, to identify only emails that already are in the trash folder, like you can say "Junk status is junk" or things like that?

Thanks again,

stu

I can see your point.

The same filter could pick up any other good email that has same conditions. So you do not want it to run on the Inbox or any other folder.

The safest method would be to disable the 'Trash folder' filter and enable when required and then disabling afterwards. But you would need to be vigilant with disabling.

Another idea would be to create a special Tag called eg: 'OffPop' and apply it to only to all items in the Deleted/Trash folder. select Delete/Trash folder Ctrl+A to select/highlight all right click on emails and choose Tag and 'OffPop'.

Adding a condition to the filter to check that the email has this special 'OffPop' TAG. 'Tags' and 'contains' and select 'OffPop' tag

Then no email will be selected if it doesn't have the special tag.

This means you are performing an extra manual process to delete a copy of a deleted email off the server. If this works for you then that's ok.

But remember, if you use the Account Settings to auto delete off server when you delete an email, then you will still have a copy on your computer of the deleted email in Trash and possibly another copy in your backup. This will save you from all the extra processes.