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How do I start files that will not be deleted when I dump the trash?

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  • Last reply by Truman

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I have had IncrediMail for 20 yrs. but sadly they have chosen to shut it down. It was a great email service that was VERY easy to use & offered a lot. One thing it offered were folders that you could move emails to. I had one for recipes & one for receipts that I used a lot. When I had to find another email service I went with Thunderbird Since I already have Mozilla but I find it hard to use & when I started a recipe folder & a receipt folders under Archives & moved my emails from IncrediMail to Thunderbird I thought those folders would be like they were in IncrediMail but they were NOT. When I dumped my trash ALL of the emails I believed were saved in the folders under Archives were deleted & are now completely gone! How do I go about starting folders that will allow me to put things in them & will NOT be deleted everytime I dump the trash? After having IncrediMail I thought all email services would be as easy to use even for someone who is not exactly computer literate but I find Thunderbird difficult to figure out & use & now I have lost all of my saved recipes & receipts because I did not see anything saying emails needed to be backed up since I never had to backup emails or things saved in folders with IncrediMail. Thank You for your time & assistance.

I have had IncrediMail for 20 yrs. but sadly they have chosen to shut it down. It was a great email service that was VERY easy to use & offered a lot. One thing it offered were folders that you could move emails to. I had one for recipes & one for receipts that I used a lot. When I had to find another email service I went with Thunderbird Since I already have Mozilla but I find it hard to use & when I started a recipe folder & a receipt folders under Archives & moved my emails from IncrediMail to Thunderbird I thought those folders would be like they were in IncrediMail but they were NOT. When I dumped my trash ALL of the emails I believed were saved in the folders under Archives were deleted & are now completely gone! How do I go about starting folders that will allow me to put things in them & will NOT be deleted everytime I dump the trash? After having IncrediMail I thought all email services would be as easy to use even for someone who is not exactly computer literate but I find Thunderbird difficult to figure out & use & now I have lost all of my saved recipes & receipts because I did not see anything saying emails needed to be backed up since I never had to backup emails or things saved in folders with IncrediMail. Thank You for your time & assistance.

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I am surprised that messages that you placed under Archives are deleted. If you are truly using the Thunderbird Archive function that does not happen.

Where and how did you create this Archive folder?

Read about the Thunderbird Archive function here. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/archived-messages

The Thunderbird special account, Local Folders, is more for what you are trying to accomplish. It is a special account that is a place to make folders that are local to your computer to keep messages in. Do us all a favor and DO NOT rename the Local Folders account. People come here all the time after forgetting they renamed it and complain that they have this account that they never use but cannot delete it. First off you use it every time you send a message because that is where the Outbox is located and it is a default special account and cannot be removed.

Right click the Local Folder account and select New Folder. Rename the folder and sort your keeper messages into those folders.

If you use the Thunderbird Archive function it does create an Archive folder under Local Folders and that is not emptied along with the trash but again it is more of an automated function designed to save by date and not category. You just press the A key when a message is selected to move to the current Archive folder.

All your email and settings are saved in your Profile. This article explains the Profile and how to back it up. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data

I do not use this add on but I hear that it will do automated backups. https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/

Almost daily there is someone here saying that they lost their irreplaceable email messages with all their priceless photos. Email, just like anything else on a computer is not permanent storage. Back it up.

There are lots of articles out there explaining Thunderbird functions. These are best found with an Internet search for the subject because Thunderbird's search is at best lacking. Some articles are outdated but are getting updated as a volunteer get to it.

A couple of other points. Thunderbird and IncrediMail are email client software and not a service. They run on your computer.

Gmail, Yahoo,Comcast, etc. are email provider services.

Mozilla has nothing to do with Thunderbird other than Thunderbird is running on the base code shared by It and Firefox and Mozilla being gracious enough to let the council use this forum for support. . They dumped it 4 or 5 years ago and a volunteer group called the Thunderbird Council took it over.