Messages not moved to trash when deleted for gmail account
Update: I have narrowed down the problem. My preference for where to move deleted messages is not being honored. Deleted messages always go to the [Gmail]/Trash folder regardless of my setting.
However, if I am not subscribed to [Gmail]/Trash, then the message disappears from the original folder, but remains in "[Gmail]/All Mail" whether or not I am subscribed to it. If I delete a message from "[Gmail]/All Mail", the message disappears in Thunderbird's message list until I restart it. The message remains visible in Gmail's web client.
So the question now is: Is there any way to use a folder besides [Gmail]/Trash as my trash folder? Google deletes messages in [Gmail]/Trash after 30 days and I don't want this done. It would also be useful to know if someone else can confirm this behavior for their own Gmail accounts.
Original question follows.
About a month and a half ago deleted messages from my inbox stopped getting moved to the Trash folder. I just noticed it recently as I don't regularly check my trash. This problem only occurs when clicking the "Delete" button or pressing the delete key on the message. I am able to right click on the message and move the message to the Trash folder.
I recently upgraded from Debian Linux stable branch to testing. The change in behavior probably coincided with that upgrade. I am currently running version 38.8.0. [Update - I verified that the last deleted message successfully moved to the Trash folder was just before the upgrade. I did not perform a full upgrade to Debian testing branch and the mail client was not part of the upgrade. I have just now upgraded the mail client to the latest on the testing branch (version 45.1.0) and the problem persists.]
I deleted my configuration directory and recreated my account to see if the problem was caused by some corruption of my settings, but the problem remains.
The problem occurs when accessing my gmail account over IMAP. I have a non-gmail account that appears to work correctly.
I verified that the account is still configured to move messages to the trash on deletion (Account Settings->[account name]->Server Settings->When I delete a message: Move it to this folder: Trash)
I searched for one of the deleted messages in all my mail files (using "grep -r" in my root configuration directory) and it only appears in the INBOX file (presumably because I haven't compressed this folder since deleting the message). So the problem is not simply that it's going to the wrong place and I can't find it.
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All Replies (6)
Toad-Hall said
I would create an imap folder called something like: 'Pending Trash' Subscribe to see that folder. Move emails to that folder as required after reading.
This is the behavior I want, but it seems that I can't configure Thunderbird to move deleted messages to this new folder when using Gmail.
This used to work for me, but something changed with either Gmail or Thunderbird to break it.
After creating new imap folder called 'Pending Trash' and subscribing to see that folder: In Account Settings > Server Settings When I delete a message : select 'Move it to this folder' and select gmails 'Pending Trash' folder. click on OK.
You should be able to select any subscribed imap gmail folder.
Toad-Hall said
[...] You should be able to select any subscribed imap gmail folder.
This is my problem. I do select a subscribed folder. The messages simply aren't moved there when deleted. They disappear from the source folder, but don't appear in the configured destination. There must be a bug somewhere in Thunderbird, Gmail, or their communication protocol.
Can you confirm the gmail expected behaviour works correctly? If you logon to webmail account via browser to read emails, what is the name of the Trash folder ?
When I logon to webmail or subscribe to see my trash/deleted items, the actual folder is called 'Bin'.
But I do not see any subscribed 'Bin' folder in the image you supplied showing your Folder Pane.
If you subscribe to see 'Bin' and set Account Settings to move deleted emails to 'Bin' on gmail account, does this occur when you click on 'Delete' button?
When I logon to webmail the trash folder is named "Trash". There is no Bin folder.
If I am subscribed to the Trash folder then my deleted messages go to that folder regardless of my configuration setting. They will then get deleted in 30 days.
I also have an [Imap]/Trash folder that shows up in webmail. This is the folder that corresponds to the Trash folder in Thunderbird.
I have tried setting various different folders as my trash folder in Thunderbird, but the behavior remains the same. Messages go to [Gmail]/Trash if I am subscribed to it. They simply disappear from the source folder if I am not subscribed to [Gmail]/Trash. These messages remain accessible in the "[Gmail]/All Mail" folder.
FWIW, my various gmail accounts use the names Bin and Deleted for the oubliette. None of them use "Trash". In some cases there is both Deleted and Bin in the same account. Go figure.
But this is probably just semantics; at least one of them will be what gmail associates with a "deleted mail" tag on certain messages, and I suspect it will discover those tagged messages regardless of where you hide them UNLESS you move them away from the gmail account folders and into, say, Local Folders' Trash folder.
I don't know and don't care about the retention policy because I don't rely on the Trash folder to store messages indefinitely.