Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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

Mulongo oyo etiyamaki na archive. Tuna motuna mosusu soki osengeli na lisalisi

Compacting Folders

  • 2 biyano
  • 1 eza na nkokoso oyo
  • 1 view
  • Eyano yasuka ya rgcm

more options

Dear Thunderbird I keep getting a message that says .... Compact folders - the messages you have deleted can be purged from disk. this operation will save about 392 megabytes of disk space. select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you .

I don't want Thunderbird to automatically delete my deleted messages unless they are older than say 6 months ... can I do this and how would I do this? Thanks

Dear Thunderbird I keep getting a message that says .... Compact folders - the messages you have deleted can be purged from disk. this operation will save about 392 megabytes of disk space. select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you . I don't want Thunderbird to automatically delete my deleted messages unless they are older than say 6 months ... can I do this and how would I do this? Thanks

Solution eye eponami

The message/pop up has nothing to do with emails you have put into the 'Trash'. The message does not mean 'Empty the Trash'.

When you move emails from one folder to another, the email is still in the original folder, but you cannot see it because it is hidden and marked with a type of flag to say delete/remove this old email when compacting file. That 'moved' email maybe something you moved from Inbox to the Trash or Junk or move to another folder for storage like 'Family'. But the Inbox still has a hidden marked as deleted copy. It is these hidden marked as deleted copies that the pop up is talking about. They need to be removed, so file can be cleaned up. It is part of a basic maintenance to help keep a healthy Thunderbird.

If your Options settings have reached a threshold you will get the pop up and the best advise is to finish what you are doing and compact the folders.

More info on compacting: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders

Please note: The wording in this pop up has caused a lot of confusion. I reported a bug and it was discussed. The wording has been improved and in version 91 it will be implemented. So you may find some of the information at the link to be showing the new changes; not current in version 78*

Tanga eyano oyo ndenge esengeli 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

Solution eye oponami

The message/pop up has nothing to do with emails you have put into the 'Trash'. The message does not mean 'Empty the Trash'.

When you move emails from one folder to another, the email is still in the original folder, but you cannot see it because it is hidden and marked with a type of flag to say delete/remove this old email when compacting file. That 'moved' email maybe something you moved from Inbox to the Trash or Junk or move to another folder for storage like 'Family'. But the Inbox still has a hidden marked as deleted copy. It is these hidden marked as deleted copies that the pop up is talking about. They need to be removed, so file can be cleaned up. It is part of a basic maintenance to help keep a healthy Thunderbird.

If your Options settings have reached a threshold you will get the pop up and the best advise is to finish what you are doing and compact the folders.

More info on compacting: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders

Please note: The wording in this pop up has caused a lot of confusion. I reported a bug and it was discussed. The wording has been improved and in version 91 it will be implemented. So you may find some of the information at the link to be showing the new changes; not current in version 78*

more options

Thanks you very much for your help