Hi, no one has any suggestions here?

There is another method you could try and it is a recent improvement. The small icon on far right of column headers allows you to select columns. Click on it to see a drop down selection and at the top is 'Select Messages' - click on it. You will now see a typical column with checkboxes. You can now click in those boxes to select emails, which appear in 'Message Pane' area as X conversations and then click on the 'Delete' button. Once you have deleted several emails and sure you do not need to recover any, right click on folder and select 'compact' to remove all old traces of deleted emails.

I have this problem too. Had it for years !!

I'm using Thunderbird 91 (64-bit) on Win 10, but the problem has been with me for years on the 32-bit versions of Thunderbird too and under Windows 7.

Deleting a single email by holding Shift then clicking Delete, or right-clicking then selecting delete in the drop-down context menu will delete the email permanently.

But if I select multiple emails and use the same Shift-Delete procedures Thunderbird sends the emails to Trash but does not delete the multiple emails permanently.

When I delete spam emails I know that I do not want them again so they do not need to be sent to Trash.

I have had this problem with Thunderbird for years under Win 7 and Win 10.

Suggestions such as starting Thunderbird in Safe Mode are unhelpful and impractical because I should not need to start Thunderbird in Safe Mode just to permanently delete multiple emails. And there are other work-arounds that are less inconvenient, but still not simple.

It would be good if the procedure to permanently delete multiple emails worked.

re:select multiple emails and use the same Shift-Delete procedures Thunderbird sends the emails to Trash but does not delete the multiple emails permanently.

I'm using Windows 10 and Thunderbird 91.3.0 TEST: In my mail account I have a folder called 'Thunderbird' - Enable the 'Select Messages' column header if not visible. 'select multiple emails' using Ctrl+left click on item in list to select, is no quicker or slower than selecting the 'Select Messages' checkboxes for each item. So in that respect it is the same.

I selected a group of emails using the checkboxes.

If the 'Message Pane is enabled then you will get offered the option of X conversations and a 'Delete' button. However, I can confidently permanently delete the selected emails so instead I use 'Shift+Delete'

Confirmation box asks to confirm - click on confirmation 'Delete' button Emails deleted. They do not go to Trash.

See image below

Please note you would still need to compact the folder (called 'Thunderbird' in my case) to fully ensure all hidden and 'marked as deleted' emails are fully removed from the mbox file.

TEST 2 Use the 'Ctrl+ click on item' to select/highlight emails in list and then use the 'Shift+Delete' keys. Get 'Confirm Delete' and click on the 'Delete' button Items do not go to Trash.

Folder needs compacting to ensure fully removed.

If you are not seeing the 'Confirm Delete' window then check settings:

Menu app icon > Preferences > General Scroll to bottom and click on 'Config Editor'

Advanced Preferences opens in new tab In top search type: shift_d This line: mail.warn_on_shift_delete Should have a 'True' value. If it says 'False': click on the toggle icon located on the right to toggle value to says 'True'

jrmwalsh said:

Suggestions such as starting Thunderbird in Safe Mode are unhelpful and impractical because I should not need to start Thunderbird in Safe Mode just to permanently delete multiple emails.

You do not say for definite whether it works for you in Safe Mode or not. But your comment implies you tried Safe Mode and it worked, but you do not want to keep going into Safe Mode just to delete. Did it work for you in Safe Mode?

gossamer tested Safe Mode and reports it had no effect - problem still occurs.

The purpose for testing whilst in 'Thunderbird Troubleshoot Mode/ aka 'Safe Mode' is to check whether an addon extension or other eg: hardware acceleration, userChrome.css file etc is interfering with process. This is a standard test when trying to ascertain what could be causing an issue. It is not something suggested as a permanent workaround.

regarding my tests : I have also tested this in both a POP account and an IMAP gmail account with same results. However, if you by-pass putting emails into a default gmail Trash folder, you will discover gmail only removes the label and therefore the email gets auto 'archived'. It will still be in the gmail 'All Mail' folder as expected.

I am also testing this using : View > Folders > All

gossamer and jrmwalsh Are you using 'Unified' view ? If yes, change to View > Folders > All Restart Thunderbird and then test multi-delete. Report back on results and information

Hi, unified view made no difference - I tried to delete multiple emails from one of the inboxes, and it just deleted them without prompting and without deleting them permanently. It just moved them to the Trash for the corresponding account.

I also made sure that mail.warn_on_shift_delete was "true" - it already was set that way.