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I can't delete the "Trash" folder to fix the problem with deleting mail!

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by christ1

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In the past day or so ThunderBird suddenly quit being able to delete mail. First, it wasn't doing anything when I clicked "Tools > Delete Mail Marked As Junk In Folder", but letting me manually delete the messages, now, NO deletion is working.

I went through the steps in the "Cannot Delete Messages" help file, but I'm not able to delete the Trash folder ... as it's telling me that I need "permission" ... but I'm the ONLY user for this computer, so I have no idea how I couldn't have the appropriate "permissions" to do this, OR how to go about getting it to recognize that I'm the only user!

What would be my next option? Totally delete ThunderBird? I assume that if I did that I'd lose all my settings and my locally stored mail ... which, needless to say, I'd not want to have happen. However, without being able to delete the junk, Thunderbird will quickly become unusable, as 80% or more of the mail that comes in is junk!

How do we fix this???

In the past day or so ThunderBird suddenly quit being able to delete mail. First, it wasn't doing anything when I clicked "Tools > Delete Mail Marked As Junk In Folder", but letting me manually delete the messages, now, NO deletion is working. I went through the steps in the "Cannot Delete Messages" help file, but I'm not able to delete the Trash folder ... as it's telling me that I need "permission" ... but I'm the ONLY user for this computer, so I have no idea how I couldn't have the appropriate "permissions" to do this, OR how to go about getting it to recognize that I'm the only user! What would be my next option? Totally delete ThunderBird? I assume that if I did that I'd lose all my settings and my locally stored mail ... which, needless to say, I'd not want to have happen. However, without being able to delete the junk, Thunderbird will quickly become unusable, as 80% or more of the mail that comes in is junk! How do we fix this???
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All Replies (3)

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Have you tried to empty the thrash folder? Right-click Trash - Empty Trash

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I emptied the trash in ThunderBird's main screen, but it didn't change the file size of the "Trash" folder ... which I still can't delete.

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Try to temporarily disable your anti-virus real-time scanner. Restart Thunderbird and try again to empty the trash folder.