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Can't delete emails in Thunderbird

beingsuzie
beingsuzie
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I have just downloaded Thunderbird today. I was importing messages from my Gmail account and deleting those that were no longer relevant. However, about three-quarters of the way through this process, the "delete" function stopped working. Whether I right-click and select delete, or hit the delete key, nothing happens except unread messages are marked as read. I've searched these forums and tried both compacting the Inbox and hitting "Repair Folder" but neither are making any difference. I don't get any error. I don't suppose anybody could help?

EDIT: when I'm importing, "Sent" messages are also appearing in my inbox. Is there any way to stop that happening?

I have just downloaded Thunderbird today. I was importing messages from my Gmail account and deleting those that were no longer relevant. However, about three-quarters of the way through this process, the "delete" function stopped working. Whether I right-click and select delete, or hit the delete key, nothing happens except unread messages are marked as read. I've searched these forums and tried both compacting the Inbox and hitting "Repair Folder" but neither are making any difference. I don't get any error. I don't suppose anybody could help? EDIT: when I'm importing, "Sent" messages are also appearing in my inbox. Is there any way to stop that happening?

Modified by beingsuzie

All Replies (1)

iamjayakumars
iamjayakumars
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Hello,

Certain Thunderbird problems can be solved by peforming a Clean Reinstall. This means you remove Thunderbird's Program Files then reinstall Thunderbird. Please follow these steps:

  1. Download the latest version of Thunderbird from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download is complete, close all Thunderbird windows (Click Exit/Quit from the menu button on the right).
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\
    • Mac: Delete Thunderbird from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Thunderbird with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Installing Thunderbird on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Thunderbird Download Page, simply remove the folder thunderbird in your home directory.
  3. Now, go ahead and reinstall Thunderbird:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to open Thunderbird after clicking the Finish button.

WARNING: Do not run Thunderbird's uninstaller or use a third party remover as part of this process, because that could permanently delete your Thunderbird data, including but not limited to, extensions,emails, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device!

Please report back to see if this helped you!

Thank you.