Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Fix for slow delete did not work - POP answer misses too many steps. Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd remain. Cannot create new Trash folder while Trash folder same

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 32 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

Rocket Flamingo
Rocket Flamingo
more options

So I deleted every Trash and Trash.msf file and the Trash folder remains. Can't create new Trash folder (using POP) because the 'steps' to fix problem fail to take into consideration Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd folders aren't deleted or altered. So the fix using delete Trash and Trash.msf won't work. I opened Thunderbird and pulled up folder properties after clicking on any folder to see where the profile actually was as I'd deleted every Trash and Trash.msf file I could find. I found it located in a folder for a profile that was in another drive (it shouldn't have been there).

I deleted the Trash and Trash.msf files leaving Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd and when restarting Thunderbird, the Trash Folder is right where it was before I deleted the files. So the "fix" doesn't fix the problem of extremely slow message deletion. Could somebody please address how to do this using POP that takes Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd into consideration?? Then I will move on to find a fix for font changing size during draft/composition and TBird's failure to get new messages after changing to "Unified" just old see all of my old email (over 10k).

Thank you!

So I deleted every Trash and Trash.msf file and the Trash folder remains. Can't create new Trash folder (using POP) because the 'steps' to fix problem fail to take into consideration Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd folders aren't deleted or altered. So the fix using delete Trash and Trash.msf won't work. I opened Thunderbird and pulled up folder properties after clicking on any folder to see where the profile actually was as I'd deleted every Trash and Trash.msf file I could find. I found it located in a folder for a profile that was in another drive (it shouldn't have been there). I deleted the Trash and Trash.msf files leaving Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd and when restarting Thunderbird, the Trash Folder is right where it was before I deleted the files. So the "fix" doesn't fix the problem of extremely slow message deletion. Could somebody please address how to do this using POP that takes Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd into consideration?? Then I will move on to find a fix for font changing size during draft/composition and TBird's failure to get new messages after changing to "Unified" just old see all of my old email (over 10k). Thank you!

All Replies (1)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

make sure hidden folders and files are visible:

In Thunderbird Help > Troubleshooting Information click on 'Show folder' button a new window opens showing your Profile folder.

Close Thunderbird now - this is important. Click on 'Mail' folder click on the pop mail account name folder

Delete the Trash, Trash.msf, Trash.mozmsgs and Trash.sbd.

Trash file contains emails Trash.msf is the indexing file - it looks at Trash to see what messages to show. Trash.sbd is a folder which is created to hold any subfolders / files in Trash. Trash.mozmsgs If you're using OSX delete the .mozmsgs subdirectory. It contains *.mozeml files used by Spotlight Integration If you're using Vista or Windows 7 (and Windows Search is enabled) delete the .mozmsg directories. It contains *.wdseml files created by Windows Search Integration.

When you start Thunderbird, a new Trash folder will be created automatically. You do not create the folder. It will be completely empty.


To assist with slowness when trying to delete can be caused by large files. So, move all good messages out of Inbox into other suitably named folders for organising. When Inbox is empty, right click on folder and select 'Compact'. this will give you a completely empty Inbox.

The Inbox should ideally be used as an Inbox for incoming messages and not be used as a general store. Usually, you should not need to actually empty the Inbox in order to compact, but if there is any corruption, you could lose messages. Compacting a folder after deleting will remove all traces of marked as deleted emails.

If you have emails in Junk folder. You can right click on Junk folder and select to 'Empty folder'. Right click on Junk folder again and select 'Compact' to remove hidden marked as deleted mail.

You can also select to compact all folders: File > Compact folders