All Trash Messages over 3 Weeks Old are Missing
I've used Thunderbird IMAP forever. Probably 20 years. I just went to retrieve a 4-month-old 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've never manually removed Trash messages. 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. What did I do wrong?
All Replies (2)
Depending on your email provider, the server may delete messages in the Trash folder after a certain time. With IMAP Thunderbird can only see what exists on the server. Check with your email provider.
Having said that, it sounds like a silly idea to me to use Trash as an archive folder. Thunderbird does have a built-in archiving feature. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/archived-messages
Wrt the lost messages, I'd backup stuff I don't want to lose. You could easily restore messages from a backup, assuming you did take the effort creating one in the first place.
Modified by christ1
christ1 said
Depending on your email provider, the server may delete messages in the Trash folder after a certain time.
I checked with my host and they do not delete IMAP email files (trash or otherwise). It's a mystery.
It's hard to know which messages will be needed 6 months or 2 years from now, but using the "Archive" feature is a good idea. Thanks.