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Trash has disappeared and now I can't even delete any folders

  • 7 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 33 views
  • Last reply by leefoo26

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Hello....I have a question out there from 1/16 saying that my Trash folder isn't working. on my gmail accoutn. It disappeared, so I created a Trash folder, but even though I have it 'pointing' to it, nothing goes in there.

I tried renaming it to 'Deletes', but that didn't work either.

I uninstalled and reinstalled TBird, but no luck.

Since Trash and Deletes are useless, I tried deleting them, but now the program won't let me. I suppose that I can drag and drop my trashed msgs into the Trash folder, but I am so used to the old way that I keep 'losing' deleted msgs. I like to keep them for 30 days just in case.

Btw, I also have a Verizon account set up and everything works perfectly with it.

Thank you

Hello....I have a question out there from 1/16 saying that my Trash folder isn't working. on my gmail accoutn. It disappeared, so I created a Trash folder, but even though I have it 'pointing' to it, nothing goes in there. I tried renaming it to 'Deletes', but that didn't work either. I uninstalled and reinstalled TBird, but no luck. Since Trash and Deletes are useless, I tried deleting them, but now the program won't let me. I suppose that I can drag and drop my trashed msgs into the Trash folder, but I am so used to the old way that I keep 'losing' deleted msgs. I like to keep them for 30 days just in case. Btw, I also have a Verizon account set up and everything works perfectly with it. Thank you

All Replies (7)

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did you right click the account in the folder pane and look in the subscribed folders to see if it was a subscription issue? or did you just go out and recreate the folder (IMAP should not allow that unless you have deleted it.)

have you checking in account settings > server settings to see if the move it to this folder setting is pointing to a folder that actually exists?

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Thx for your reply. Your help is much appreciated.

See attached for what I get when I 'right click' the Trash folder. I have no idea what you mean by 'subscribed folder'. It doesn't appear in the 'right click' menu. See pic.

The second pic shows that deletes should go to 'Trash'. However, I noticed that my Gmail 'Trash' folder doesn't have a trash can icon next to it. When I lost all of my folders, just figured that I could create a 'Trash' folder and it would suffice. It didn't work, obviously. :)

But that still doesn't explain why I can't delete these useless folders. I'm scratching my head here. :)

Also, when I went into Account setting > Server Settings I see subscription folders.

I still haven't figured out why all of the folders disappeared 4 months ago (and someone was very helpful trying to figure it out), but other than all of the lost saved messages (grrrr....sh*t happens, I guess) this has been my only issue with TBird.

One clarification...this is a GMail account. I am not sure if that is part of the problem.

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Matt said

right click the account in the folder pane

leefoo26 said

what I get when I 'right click' the Trash folder.

See the difference. So you will not get a settings or a subscribe menu entry because you are not looking at the account context.

For the moment change the setting for deleted to "just mark it as deleted". If you can delete an email then (it will appear with a strikethrough ) in the mail lists change it back... restating the correct folder may be all that is required to reset the flag that marks the folder as the designated trash folder.

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I'm having a similar issue . . . I have tried numerous times over the last few years to delete a particular folder; even tried to uninstall and reinstall Thunderbird to no avail. When I try to delete a particular folder (that holds emails about a project we are working on) it either won't delete (even if I empty the folder first) or it will recreate itself elsewhere. I now have at least 7 of the same empty folder in various places in my Thunderbird database list; 4 are in folders and subfolders in my Trash bin; 3 are in my Current Projects folder (I only want one there that actually has emails in it).

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Matt,

It has now started occurring again. I tried that trick and it seems to only work while my computer is on. Once I turn it off and go back into TBird, I have the same issue. If I do that procedute, it works, then, when I turn off my computer and then turn it back on....................well, I think you can guess.... :)  :) :)

Thx again for your help.

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leefoo26 said

Matt, It has now started occurring again. I tried that trick and it seems to only work while my computer is on. Once I turn it off and go back into TBird, I have the same issue. If I do that procedute, it works, then, when I turn off my computer and then turn it back on....................well, I think you can guess.... :)  :) :) Thx again for your help.

For the setting change to not be saved I can only assume there is an issue writing to the prefs.js file in your profile folder.

This can have numerous causes. if the device is more that a couple of years old, a failing disk is possible, but a common issue is allowing anti virus programs to scan in the Thunderbird profile folder. Try creating a exemption there and see if it helps.

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Matt... Thx again for trying to help. I set the exception in my Virus scan and reset to the 'Move to Trash' folder, closed TBird and reopened it. I even tried rebooting.

But....it didn't help. Same issue. However, I am getting used to just dragging all of the lined thru messages into the Trash Folder. It isn't optimal, but for the 4-5 I delete a day, it isn't that big of a deal I guess. I am retired so it is only personal mail. There's a lot worse problems to have in life right now.

Again thanks and have a great weekend!