Thunderbird won't delete emails from server

esuhl

I'm trying to set up Thunderbird on my new Asus EEE 901 but can't work out how to make it delete an email from my IMAP server when I delete it locally.

I have two different email accounts set up, and on both the "Server Settings" are set so that when I delete a message it's moved to the trash folder, and the "Empty Trash on Exit" box is ticked.

The email account I have with altern.org works fine - I delete a message, exit Thunderbird, then log in via webmail and it's gone. With my GMX.com account, I can see all the "deleted" messages in webmail, but they're gone from Thunderbird even if I check for new messages again.

On my main PC (using an obscure email client), deleting messages works fine on either account.

In case it makes a difference, I'm using the Thunderbird v2.0.0.14-1asus1 on the standard Xandros installation...

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :-)

littlepanther

Got to file menu and choose Compact Folders. I know weird but it worked for me.

esuhl

Thanks, littlepanther, that's really helpful... According the MozillaZine, when you choose to delete an email, it isn't actually deleted until you empty the trash AND compact folders.

It seems to be intended behaviour, but very weird as you say!

Anyway, thanks so much - that would've taken me ages to figure out! :beer:

esuhl

Ahhh... I've found the option that does this automatically:

You need to go to Edit > Account Settings... > Server Settings, then tick the box marked Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit.

There are a few more suggestions at the following link as apparently this only works with IMAP servers: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=77257

Hope this helps if you're still having this issue.

littlepanther

You could do that. I prefer to choose when to delete rather than it expunging them automatically, only because I have those moments when I hope I haven't deleted the email fully yet so it can be restored. However, if you're confident that once deleted you never want to see it again I say go for it.