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Moving deleted messages to a specific Gmail folder stopped working as of 38.2.0 (worked previously)

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Gnospen

fessler
fessler
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I use Gmail and I use the account setting "when i delete a message" to move the message to a specific folder on the Gmail server (not to Gmail/Trash). This setting worked fine in Thunderbird 31.7.0 and before, but in Thunderbird 38.2.0 the message just disappears with no label rather than being moved to the specified folder.

I can find the moved messages by using the Gmail search has:nouserlabels -in:sent -in:chat -in:draft -in:inbox

You might wonder why I do this? Because my keyboards sometimes double bounce and delete two messages and this way I can find them easily in the specific folder. I use Gmail web interface to Trash the messages in the local folder daily. Think of it like trying to find a piece of paper you accidentally discarded - much easier to find in your office trash bin than in the building dumpster.

I use Gmail and I use the account setting "when i delete a message" to move the message to a specific folder on the Gmail server (not to Gmail/Trash). This setting worked fine in Thunderbird 31.7.0 and before, but in Thunderbird 38.2.0 the message just disappears with no label rather than being moved to the specified folder. I can find the moved messages by using the Gmail search has:nouserlabels -in:sent -in:chat -in:draft -in:inbox You might wonder why I do this? Because my keyboards sometimes double bounce and delete two messages and this way I can find them easily in the specific folder. I use Gmail web interface to Trash the messages in the local folder daily. Think of it like trying to find a piece of paper you accidentally discarded - much easier to find in your office trash bin than in the building dumpster.

All Replies (3)

Gnospen
Gnospen
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Your right I wonder why you do this. From Gmail/Inbox move to Gmail/Might-be-deleted. From Gmail/Might-be-deleted move to Gmail/Trash

Gmail/Trash emptied? If not: every mail is still in Gmail/Trash and Gmail/All

Do you compact your Folders? If not: all deleted mails are still in your inbox (or other folders) they are only marked as (to be) deleted.

If you used Trash you can recover a mistakenly deleted mail If you then first empty Trash before deleting today's mail there wouldn't be so many.

There is no need to use webmail. If you Empty or and compact your Gmail/Trash on your PC it will sync with Gmail's server. As will every mail you delete or move. Just remember to compact regularly so the folders will be rewritten and deleted (or moved) mails will be eliminated.

Your problem might be caused by a corrupt folder. If compacting doesnt help try to repair it. Right-click on folder / properties / repair

fessler
fessler Question owner
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Thanks for your answer. I did not know about compacting or repairing folders. Unfortunately neither of those solved the problem.

Gmail/Trash automatically empties anything that is more than 30 days old. I like that system and do not want to manually empty Gmail/Trash.

What is missing from your reply and is still a problem (bug?) is that the "when I delete a message" option to move to a folder worked fine before (e.g., in 31.7.0) but stopped working in 38.2.0. You are proposing work-arounds, and I appreciate that, but the feature is there in Tbird for many reasons, and it should work as advertised just like it did before. I think someone broke something in the 38.2.0 release.

Gnospen
Gnospen
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I've made some testing. You can not select a local folder as trash-folder in IMAP. You can select other subscribed folders at account on server

Creating temp-trash on my Gmail account and setting it to collect deleted messages. (Then restarted Tbird.) All deleted still goes into trash.

Creating temp-trash on my NOT Gmail account and setting it to collect deleted messages. (Then restarted Tbird.) And it worked as I wanted. All deleted goes into temp-trash.