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The "empty trash" function is not working. I am having to manually delete thousands of items out of trash. I also am not able to completely delete folders.

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  • Last reply by batlan

I didn't realize it until today that my "empty trash" function has not been working for some time. I have been using the function regularly but did not check that it was working for months. No I am having to manually delete thousands of trash emails. Also, for years, I have not been able to delete folders. They go to the trash but simply accumulate in the trash folder. Periodically, the empty folders redistribute themselves under other miscellaneous folders. When I try to move them to the trash folder, the Thunderbird program says I can't because the folder already exists. I have to rename it to send it to trash...then I find it has redistributed itself under another folder at a later time. I have approximately 200 folders in the trash folder..and growing. Thunderbird seems to be getting more and more unstable and I find this disconcerting...as I rely on it significantly. Do I have to switch email programs? By the way, I have almost 8,000 emails in the program....not counting those stored in the hundreds of folders I have. Could this be the/a problem?

I didn't realize it until today that my "empty trash" function has not been working for some time. I have been using the function regularly but did not check that it was working for months. No I am having to manually delete thousands of trash emails. Also, for years, I have not been able to delete folders. They go to the trash but simply accumulate in the trash folder. Periodically, the empty folders redistribute themselves under other miscellaneous folders. When I try to move them to the trash folder, the Thunderbird program says I can't because the folder already exists. I have to rename it to send it to trash...then I find it has redistributed itself under another folder at a later time. I have approximately 200 folders in the trash folder..and growing. Thunderbird seems to be getting more and more unstable and I find this disconcerting...as I rely on it significantly. Do I have to switch email programs? By the way, I have almost 8,000 emails in the program....not counting those stored in the hundreds of folders I have. Could this be the/a problem?

Chosen solution

Certainly, lots of messages means big files, and there can be issues with big files.

You could open Trash, use ctrl+a to select all, then see if they delete. If you can get Trash down to a manageable size, try right-click, properties, repair. The business of things appearing in wrong folders may well point to corruption; this often manifests as one message showing the contents of another. Given your troubles, I suspect you haven't been able to delete or compact for some time, both of which can reduce or eliminate corruption. I don't think ctrl+a will let you delete the folders in Trash, but getting the Trash file size down may help.

Alternatively, you could open your profile, make sure Thunderbird is closed, and delete the Trash folder itself. I'd also delete its associated Trash.msf file too. And look for any Trash.sbd files that might represent deleted folders.

On reflection, I'd go straight for the profile and the various Trash files - note there will be one for each account.

Help|Troubleshooting Information

Click on the button Profile Folder→"show folder"

(an Explorer window will open at your profile.)

Close Thunderbird, now start searching in Explorer for files named Trash, Trash.sbd and Trash.msf. Delete them.

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Chosen Solution

Certainly, lots of messages means big files, and there can be issues with big files.

You could open Trash, use ctrl+a to select all, then see if they delete. If you can get Trash down to a manageable size, try right-click, properties, repair. The business of things appearing in wrong folders may well point to corruption; this often manifests as one message showing the contents of another. Given your troubles, I suspect you haven't been able to delete or compact for some time, both of which can reduce or eliminate corruption. I don't think ctrl+a will let you delete the folders in Trash, but getting the Trash file size down may help.

Alternatively, you could open your profile, make sure Thunderbird is closed, and delete the Trash folder itself. I'd also delete its associated Trash.msf file too. And look for any Trash.sbd files that might represent deleted folders.

On reflection, I'd go straight for the profile and the various Trash files - note there will be one for each account.

Help|Troubleshooting Information

Click on the button Profile Folder→"show folder"

(an Explorer window will open at your profile.)

Close Thunderbird, now start searching in Explorer for files named Trash, Trash.sbd and Trash.msf. Delete them.

BTW, are you using POP or IMAP?

If IMAP, it may be quicker to go to your email provider's website and tidy up there first.

Thanks for your input. Before I received your comment, I had spent 2 to 3 hours deleting the emails one-at-a-time. The "remove trash" function then started working. Thanks for the "control-a" information. That will come in handy in the future. (now if Mozilla will come up with a highlight and delete function, that would be great).

Your advice to go into the profile folder was helpful in that it allowed me a method to delete the folders. I went into the email folder and accessed the individual folders in the account. I deleted those in the trash and junk file. Most disappeared for good, however, a number of them reappeared when I reloaded Thunderbird. I deleted them again and they reappeared again. I decided to search through all of the folders and found the problem folders had duplicated themselves in other folders and were 're-seeding' the trash and junk files from these places. I deleted the folders in both places and they have not returned.

Both problems are resolved.

Thanks again.

Modified by batlan