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Suddenly Trash is deleting messages more than 1 week old. Not a "delete on exit" or retention issue. Help!

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by elpbriggs

elpbriggs
elpbriggs
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Trash used to hold messages for 3-4 months. As of today it deleted all emails older than 1 week. Looking for Trash settings on Thunderbird Help got me instructions to to something that isn't actually an option. Searching for similar issues led me to directions to "Empty Deleted folder on Exit" under Settings - it's not checked. Also found directions to "Synchronisation & Storage" - "Don't Delete any messages"; this is checked, as is "Always keep starred messages". No other suggestions listed anywhere. Where are Trash settings so users an set the time for automatic Trash folder deletion, and what is going on all of a sudden? Help!

Trash used to hold messages for 3-4 months. As of today it deleted all emails older than 1 week. Looking for Trash settings on Thunderbird Help got me instructions to to something that isn't actually an option. Searching for similar issues led me to directions to "Empty Deleted folder on Exit" under Settings - it's not checked. Also found directions to "Synchronisation & Storage" - "Don't Delete any messages"; this is checked, as is "Always keep starred messages". No other suggestions listed anywhere. Where are Trash settings so users an set the time for automatic Trash folder deletion, and what is going on all of a sudden? Help!

All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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That you have a "synchronization and settings" entry in account settings makes your account an IMAP mail account.

This type of mail account is directly synchronized with the server, so if your mail provider has a policy of only keeping mail for one week in the trash, then that will be reflected in Thunderbird. This is despite your settings in Thunderbird, as the servers policies always trump local settings.

elpbriggs
elpbriggs Question owner
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Thanks for the suggestion, but this isn't the case. My email provider has no such policy and I'm only using 1.5 GB of storage so I'm nowhere near their storage limit, either.

Any other ideas?