I presume:

• you are using an imap gmail account.
• The gmail Trash folder is subscribed to be seen.
• Account Settings is set up to use the imap gmail 'Trash' folder which for some people may be called 'Bin'.
• Trash folder - right click select Properties - the checkbox 'When getting new messages for this account always check this folder' is selected - it just helps to ensure it is up to date.

This is set up in the Account Settings:

• Menu icon > Account Settings
• select 'Server Settings' for the imap gmail account
• When I delete a message:
• Select 'Move it to this folder' and choose the 'Trash on imap gmail account'

In the same area - under 'Message Storage'

• checkbox 'Empty Deleted folder on Exit'

If this checkbox is selected, it means everytime you close/exit Thunderbird that imap Trash folder will get emptied. So perhaps you do not want to select that checkbox.

You may want to have fully downloaded copies :

• click on 'Synchronisation & Storage'
• click on 'Advanced..' button
• Check the 'Trash' folder is selected.

Please note: gmail will auto delete emails that have been in the Trash for 30 days. see info: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7401?

If you click on Delete and immediately realise that was wrong you could use the Undo action: 'Menu bar' - 'Edit' > Undo Delete Message' OR Menu icon > 'Click on the Edit > icon' > select 'Undo' OR 'Ctrl+Z'

Please note: if you use 'Shift+Del' key then email is deleted but it by-passes the Trash folder. However, gmail see this as just delete the label not the email. So it is basically archived by gmail. It will still be in the gmail 'All Mail' folder as that is where gmail stores all your emails. Most people prefer not to subscribe to see the 'All Mail' folder because it is just a complete duplicate of everything and not very easy to use as it has everything in it - sent, received, archived etc etc. You could logon to your gmail webmail account using a browser, check the contents of the 'All Mail' folder - if you see email then select to put it back in the Inbox - aka get a 'Inbox' label applied and it will reappear in the imap Inbox folder.

Toad-Hall, your information is useful, but I haven't been able to correct my problem.

I checked out your presumptions: Yes, I am using an imap gmail account. I have a Trash folder, but not being sure if it is a an "imap gmail" folder, I created and subscribed to a "[Gmail]^Trash folder. No change; deleted messages do not go there either. I did check both boxes in both trash folders' Properties.

The account settings seem to be as you recommend. I choose not to have trash emptied on exit.

I hope the screenshots will provide a clue to something I'm not setting correctly. Any further suggestions? Thanks for your guidance so far. Rocky

1. The server name is SMTP.gmail.com The googlemail servers were basically retired about the time Gmail came out of beta (it look a lot longer for the Thunderbird account setup to be changed however) WHile they should still work, odd peculiarities can creep in with oAuth authentication and some other interoperability things.

2. The next issue is Thunderbird uses IMAP, google uses something that look like IMAP to Thunderbird but involves some abstractions from folders to the Gmail labels structure.

This link in to your settings on googles web site will show exactly how Google translate labels to folders, and determines if they are shown to IMAP clients like Thunderbird.

Fundamentally everything that is in your gmail account is in the All Mail folder on Gmail. Be it inbox trash or archives. When the web interface is asked to show the inbox it searched all mail for mail with the label inbox. For IMAP google translates certain labels to folders as shown in the link I provided to comply with the IMAP standard, but the emulation is not always quite 100%.

In determining if something is messed up, look to the icons on the folders. The trash folder should have a trash bin icon. To borrow from your image the trash folder you show (neither of them) has the correct icon.

This addon should allow you to reset the appropriate flag on your trash folder and see the correct icon and the correct functions resumed. This flag should be derived from the google IMAP server responses, but there are issues frequently enough for this addon to exist.

oh, I put a server name in upper case again.

Note to me and you. No server name contains upper case characters.

Observations:

You do not seem to have all the gmail folders displaying in the Subscribe list.

'Sent' is currently selected as the folder to contain your sent emails. gmail does not use a 'Sent' folder - it uses 'Sent Mail'.

In Account Settings > Copies & Folders' Normally you do not need to select a sent folder as gmail auto puts sent items into the server 'Sent mail' folder. Suggest: Select 'Place a copy in' Select 'Other' and choose '[Gmail] Sent Mail on gmail account'

Same for 'Drafts' Select 'Other' and choose '[Gmail] Drafts on gmail account'

I would have expected to see a [Gmail] Templates in the subscribe list. I'm wondering if the issues are due to you using imap.googlemail.com instead of imap.gmail.com

'Junk' is not used as default folder on server for spam/junk mail. It uses 'Spam' I do not see a 'Spam' folder in your subscribe list.

Trash - as Matt says - it does not have a trash icon, so flag may be wrong. However, I would expect to use '[Gmail] Trash on gmail account'

Can you logon to webmail account - make sure all the folders are displayed and post an image showing all the folders in the webmail account.

Thank you both for your observations and recommendations. Here's what I've done and the results so far:

• I changed the incoming and outgoing servers from "googlemail" to "gmail"
• I reviewed the Gmail > Labels listing in google.mail.com to make sure all the relevant labels/folders were checked for "Show in label list" and "Show in IMAP" -- most already were even though they didn't show up as Folders in Thunderbird
• See the list of Gmail folders (labels?) in the Gmail account (2 images) below
• Now my list of folders in TBird has shrunk to three (see screenshot below): Inbox, Junk and Trash. But Trash has the correct icon now (!). When I delete a message from the inbox now, it goes into the Trash folder. Original problem solved!
• Now -- how do I get the other folders from Gmail back to Thunderbird? Opening up the Subscribe list still shows only the Junk and Trash folders and without the correct icons. Can I simply select New Folder and create folders for Sent, Templates, etc.? I suspect not -- that would be too logical and easy.
• Oh, and I did install folderflags (thanks Matt), but it appears I can only reset flags for folders already appearing in the Folders list.
• I did try creating new folders and setting flags and it seemed to work (showing the correct icons), but no email messages showed up in those folders. See final image.

I seem to be making some headway, thanks to you guys. Just need to get those other folders back into TBird and connected to Gmail. I hope you'll stay with me to figure that out. Thanks again, Rocky