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How to remove an email account with its e-mails completely from computer after deleting account from Thunderbird as the e-mails still exist on the computer?

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  • Last reply by christ1

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I have deleted an e-mail account from Thunderbird on iMac, however I can still see the e-mails relating to this account in the Spotlight search on iMac, and the antivirus is still scanning them, how to delete them completely from the computer?

Please advise...

Thank you

I have deleted an e-mail account from Thunderbird on iMac, however I can still see the e-mails relating to this account in the Spotlight search on iMac, and the antivirus is still scanning them, how to delete them completely from the computer? Please advise... Thank you

All Replies (3)

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You'll need to delete the directory containing the mail corresponding to the deleted account within your Thunderbird profile. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

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Thank you for your response.

When I go to profiles, I found a folder : xtb5bnb.default

Within this folder several other folders like imap.mail which again has 3-4 folders which are related to the mail accounts and also .msf files..

What to do next please?

Thank you

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When I go to profiles, I found a folder : xtb5bnb.default

That's your profile folder.

Within this folder several other folders like imap.mail

ImapMail holds the mail folders for IMAP accounts. Mail holds the mail folders for POP accounts and for the 'Local Folders' account.

... which again has 3-4 folders which are related to the mail accounts and also .msf files.

Depending on the account type of the deleted account you'll need to identify the corresponding mail folder for that account. Typically it can be recognized by it's name, unless you gave it a really cryptic name. That's the one you want to delete. Make sure to pick the correct one.

You may want to create a backup of your Thunderbird profile before that just in case. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile