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How do I permanently delete emails from my computer?

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  • Last reply by Zenos

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When one deletes emails from the trash on Thunderbird, are they deleted and overwritten (as Secure Empty Trash does on a Mac), or are they still recoverable from somewhere on the computer? If the latter, how does one completely delete and overwrite emails deleted from the Thunderbird trash file?

Thank you,

Beachwalk43

When one deletes emails from the trash on Thunderbird, are they deleted and overwritten (as Secure Empty Trash does on a Mac), or are they still recoverable from somewhere on the computer? If the latter, how does one completely delete and overwrite emails deleted from the Thunderbird trash file? Thank you, Beachwalk43

Chosen solution

Simplest: compact your Trash folders after deleting.

You could close Thunderbird, ferret about in its profile and delete the Trash folders, and of course you're free to use any 3rd party utilities for scrubbing erased files.

I've read of users who run Firefox from a batch which deletes any files which might store session-related data after Firefox has been closed. You may be able to adapt and adopt this approach too.

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Chosen Solution

Simplest: compact your Trash folders after deleting.

You could close Thunderbird, ferret about in its profile and delete the Trash folders, and of course you're free to use any 3rd party utilities for scrubbing erased files.

I've read of users who run Firefox from a batch which deletes any files which might store session-related data after Firefox has been closed. You may be able to adapt and adopt this approach too.