Thunderbird is deleting mail from Trash (even though I told it not to)
I'm on TB 104.2.1 (64-bit), using Windows 11. I'm pretty good at letting it update within a day or two of the new version notification. I'm using IMAP.
I use my Trash folder as a place to hold received emails I think I'm done with until I can take some time to do some email management. The Delete key is ever-so-convenient. I work on big projects, so sometimes it takes me a few months before I can clean things up. I've read answers that say, basically, "If you put your emails in Trash, you should expect to lose them." And yet, I've been working this way since forever, since before Thunderbird.
In the past, my Trash has always been a safe place to keep emails for a few months. I would like to continue to depend on it. I'm not sure when I switched from Outlook Express to TB, but both OE and TB have pretty much left my Trash alone for the last 20 years. But in the past 6 months, I keep discovering that mail I've put into Trash has disappeared before I get a chance to archive it. Right now, my Trash folder has emails going back to 10/20 (about 12 days' worth). My archive folder has emails up to the end of July, so I just lost a lot of knowledge.
So I googled the problem. I found three solutions:
1) Some people have their email set to delete immediately. I don't. I have "Settings > Server settings > When I delete a message" set to "Move it to this folder: Trash".
2) Some people have "To recover disk space, old messages can be permanently deleted . . ." set to something other than "Don't delete any messages". I have it set to "Don't delete any messages".
3) Some people have servers that clear out their Trash folder. I don't. I have my own account on Bluehost. My email settings on Bluehost don't have any kind of date-based expiration option. There is an option for a storage-based limit, but I have it set for Unlimited. If Bluehost is emptying my Trash, this is something new, and they're being really sneaky about it.
Any ideas?
All Replies (7)
re : "If you put your emails in Trash, you should expect to lose them." Well that statement is basically correct. Deleted emails are put in the Trash as per settings because they are not required. In the same way you put household items that are rubbish/not required in the Bin/Trash for the collector to dispatch.
re :mail I've put into Trash has disappeared before I get a chance to archive it. check this setting Account Settings > 'Server Settings' for imap account Under 'Message Storage'
- Do you have this selected 'Empty Deleted folder on Exit' ?
- If yes, then uncheck that option.
You mention 'Bluehost' but they also use 'Wordpress'.
Wordpress do auto empty trash off server, so is it possible the reason for loss of emails is you use Wordpress via Bluehost?
Wordpress state:
https://wordpress.com/support/trash/
Please be aware that files in the trash are automatically deleted after 30 days.
Yes, I expected to hear that I shouldn't put emails I might need in the Trash. OTOH, TB has settings that purport to allow me to do just that. And my crazy expectation that my emails should not disappear from Trash (or anywhere) without my consent has served me pretty well for most of the last 20 years. It's only in the last 6 months that I've begun losing older email.
No, "Empty Trash on Exit" is not checked. And the problem is not that the Trash empties on exit. Right now I have 13 days of email in my Trash folder. Exiting and restarting the program does not delete those emails.
I have several websites hosted on my Bluehost account. And you're right that Wordpress has various Trash folders for different kinds of posts (pages, comments, users, products, categories -- basically everything in Wordpress is some kind of post). You're also right that Wordpress defaults to emptying certain kinds of post trash (comments) after 30 days. Of course, Wordpress posts reside in a Wordpress database.
IMAP emails reside in email store files that sync locally to a server. Emails do not reside in a Wordpress database. Just because Bluehost offers both website hosting and email hosting doesn't mean that the two have anything to do with each other. Bluehost also offers domains and SSL certificates. Those are not email either.
At some point I will probably stop using my Trash folder as a place to hold not-yet-archived email that I want out of my Inbox. But before I give up completely, I would like to figure out why my emails are disappearing from my Trash folder.
I have the same problem. Used Thunderbird IMAP forever. Probably 20 years. I just went to retrieve a 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 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.
re : comment by jl11 - I just went to retrieve a message from my Trash file and found all messages beyond 3 weeks ago were gone.
You mention IMAP
Please note: many servers auto empty the Trash and Spam folders. Thunderbird has no control over this action. eg: gmail will auto delete emails from server/webmail Trash and also Spam when they have been in that folder for 30 days. Imap accounts can only display what is held on server.
Other servers do vary in the times of period emptying, some are 30 days, some are are 7 days and I have come across others that do it after 3 days. A few servers do have settings that allow the user to choose the frequency.
If you have another device accessing the same account via imap and you have a setting to empty Trash then this will auto delete off server and therefore those emails cannot display in any other account that uses imap.
Thunderbird can also auto empty the Trash, but only if you have set up that option - "Empty Trash on Exit".
I gave up. Just stopped using the Trash folder. If I want to delete an email, I shift-delete it so it's gone. About once a week I clean out my Inbox, put everything I need to keep into a TrashNot folder. It would be nice if I could hook that up to the Delete key (or to any key combination, so I don't have to drag and drop). It would be nice if I could understand why the Trash folder randomly deletes email. None of the other folders corrupt this way.
kbenson said
I gave up. Just stopped using the Trash folder. If I want to delete an email, I shift-delete it so it's gone. About once a week I clean out my Inbox, put everything I need to keep into a TrashNot folder. It would be nice if I could hook that up to the Delete key (or to any key combination, so I don't have to drag and drop). It would be nice if I could understand why the Trash folder randomly deletes email. None of the other folders corrupt this way.
All imap accounts can choose where they put deleted emails. Whilst most people want emails to go into the Trash folder because it's just more convenient in most situations, you can choose whatever folder you like. Account Settings > Server Settings When I delete a message: select 'Move it to this folder' and choose another folder you created eg: 'TempHold on imap account'
As I previously mentioned, when it comes to imap accounts, the common reason for emails disappearing from Trash is down to three possibilities: 1. You have Thunderbird Account Settings > Server Settings - Message Storage section set up to 'Empty Deleted folder on Exit' 2. You have a 'Retention Policy' set on folder to auto delete emails - via right click on Trash and select 'Properties' > 'Retention Policy' tab 3. The server has an auto empty Trash folder which it performs periodically. This is perhaps the most common. So you may not have had a problem in the past but suddenly you do because server has just adopted the policy as a means of retaining space.
Yes, you previously mentioned these common reasons. What I'm experiencing is not due to one of the common reasons. Thunderbird simply randomly corrupts my Trash store once or twice a year.