Important Notice: We're experiencing email notification issues. If you've posted a question in the community forums recently, please check your profile manually for responses while we're working to fix this.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How do I empty the deleted folder easily?

more options

I want to empty the deleted e mail easily without doing it individually

I want to empty the deleted e mail easily without doing it individually

Chosen solution

I'm not a Thunderbird user but based on what I've read...

To immediately delete everything in the Trash folder, you should be able to do either of these:

  • right-click the folder > Empty Trash
  • File menu > Empty Trash

In any folder, you also should be able to delete all messages by clicking to select the first message, then using either

  • Ctrl+a (select all)
  • Shift+End (select to end)
  • scroll to the bottom > shift+click the last message

With all messages selected, press the Delete key.

Any luck?

Two notes:

(1) Thunderbird may handle IMAP accounts somewhat differently than POP accounts. This article has more information: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_messages_in_IMAP_accounts.

(2) Deleted messages may be recoverable using a text editor until the folder is compacted. This article has more information on compacting: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders.

Read this answer in context 👍 4

All Replies (1)

more options

Chosen Solution

I'm not a Thunderbird user but based on what I've read...

To immediately delete everything in the Trash folder, you should be able to do either of these:

  • right-click the folder > Empty Trash
  • File menu > Empty Trash

In any folder, you also should be able to delete all messages by clicking to select the first message, then using either

  • Ctrl+a (select all)
  • Shift+End (select to end)
  • scroll to the bottom > shift+click the last message

With all messages selected, press the Delete key.

Any luck?

Two notes:

(1) Thunderbird may handle IMAP accounts somewhat differently than POP accounts. This article has more information: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_messages_in_IMAP_accounts.

(2) Deleted messages may be recoverable using a text editor until the folder is compacted. This article has more information on compacting: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders.