Gmail IMAP Question

[Animalthewolf]

I have Mozilla Thunderbird to mark messages as deleted when I delete them, which is the recommended setting from the Gmail tutorial. After marking them as deleted, I usually close out Thunderbird because I am done reading my email. When I start thunderbird about an hour later, the messages I marked as still in my inbox, when I go to the main site, the same thing happens, they are still in my inbox.

When do they actually delete?

[earlzsta]

Originally Posted by Animalthewolf

I have Mozilla Thunderbird to mark messages as deleted when I delete them, which is the recommended setting from the Gmail tutorial. After marking them as deleted, I usually close out Thunderbird because I am done reading my email. When I start thunderbird about an hour later, the messages I marked as still in my inbox, when I go to the main site, the same thing happens, they are still in my inbox.

When do they actually delete?

Hi Animalthewolf,

You have not mentioned whether you are using POP or IMAP, I think it's safe to assume that you are using IMAP?

With IMAP you need to purge deleted messages otherwise it will just have a line going through the message to indicate that it is marked as deleted but you also need to purge the deleted messages when using IMAP.

Follow these steps:
Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> "When I delete a message" has choices for "Move it to the Trash folder", "Mark it as deleted" and "Remove it immediately".

For more information:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_m..._IMAP_accounts

BTW: Welcome to the EMD Forums, and enjoy your stay

[zhak]

Originally Posted by Animalthewolf

I have Mozilla Thunderbird to mark messages as deleted when I delete them, which is the recommended setting from the Gmail tutorial.

That is the correct setting, but deleting in Thunderbird is not actually deleting the message.

Originally Posted by earlzsta

With IMAP you need to purge deleted messages otherwise it will just have a line going through the message to indicate that it is marked as deleted but you also need to purge the deleted messages when using IMAP.

You shouldn't have to in Gmail, Gmail IMAP is a little different. Gmail auto-expunges (removes label) automatically unless using the advanced IMAP controls labs feature, and auto-expunge is turned off. However, I also have my Thunderbird set to remove it immediately and in about:config have mail.imap.expunge_after_delete set to true.

Animalthewolf, see this page for basic Thunderbird settings:

Thunderbird 2.0 settings

which links at the bottom (step 21) to this page for recommended additional settings:

Recommended IMAP client settings

(Click on the Thunderbird link to expand the Thunderbird section of the page).

Where it says:

Check for new messages at startup > checked
Check for new messages every 10 minutes > checked
When I delete a message > Mark it as deleted
Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit > do NOT check
Empty Trash on Exit > do NOT check

Also you should see these pages to understand that deleting a message using Thunderbird is only actually removing a label and not deleting the message.

Deleting IMAP messages

How do actions sync in IMAP?

Also welcome.

[zhak]

Originally Posted by Animalthewolf

When I start thunderbird about an hour later, the messages I marked as still in my inbox, when I go to the main site, the same thing happens, they are still in my inbox.

This should not happen, as deleting from the Gmail inbox in Tbird removes the 'inbox' label which is the same as 'archiving'.

Do you have the labs feature Advanced IMAP Controls selected under 'Settings - Forwarding and POP/IMAP' with Do not automatically expunge messages selected?

[Animalthewolf]

Yes I do. I have it set to move them to the trash. Which, it should do, shouldn't it?

[zhak]

I haven't played with every possible combination of settings, but I might expect since the setting says:

When a message is expunged from the last visible IMAP folder

that if the message has another label besides the inbox label, that you might get the behavior you are seeing. I would suggest turning off the advanced IMAP controls or selecting:

Immediately expunge messages when I mark them deleted in IMAP

which is the default behavior. Then the messages you delete will no longer be in your inbox when you return. However, I understand that the other setting exists so that you do not end up with unlabeled messages in 'All Mail' that you actually wanted to have deleted.

Added: Note that there is a Google Group dedicated to this one lab for questions surrounding its use. The labs features by definition are experimental.

[zhak]

Originally Posted by zhak

I haven't played with every possible combination of settings..

Now I have, and I just duplicated your issue. I set Thunderbird to:

• When I delete a message: mark it as deleted
• about:config setting mail.imap.expunge_after_delete set to false (default)

Gmail advanced IMAP controls labs feature to:

• Auto-Expunge: Do not automatically expunge messages
• When a message is expunged from the last visible IMAP folder: Move the message to the Trash

I deleted a message from my Thunderbird inbox that had no other label, it properly appeared with a strikeout showing that it was marked for deletion. Then opened Gmail and it is still in the inbox. Clearly from the wording of the lab that When a message is expunged from the last visible IMAP folder: Move the message to the Trash is not happening. I just tested and it happens when the message has one different label (not the inbox label), so setting Thunderbird to:

• Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on exit

won't fix the problem as that does not expunge from other folders (labels).

Setting Thunderbird to:

• about:config setting mail.imap.expunge_after_delete set to true

does not fix the issue.

Leaving that set, and setting Thunderbird to:

• When I delete a message: delete it immediately

makes it disappear from the Thunderbird maillist as one would expect, but it still shows up in the inbox or label in Gmail and does not get moved to the trash.

IMO, the labs feature is broken.

Added: A quick browse of the Google Group shows that this has been reported and is an issue when 'All Mail' is set as visible (apparently 'All Mail' is also a label and unless 'All Mail' is hidden, the message being deleted from the inbox or another label does not meet the requirement of last visible label, so the message is not moved to the trash). I use 'All Mail' occasionally, so I would not want to select this combination of settings.

However, I set 'All Mail' to 'hide' and unchecked 'show in IMAP' under settings - labels, and unsubscribed from 'All Mail' in Thunderbird, and set When I delete a message: mark it as deleted, and about:config setting mail.imap.expunge_after_delete set to false (default), restarted both Tbird and Gmail and still cannot get it to work as you want. The messages remain in the Gmail inbox after marking as deleted in Thunderbird. So I believe this labs feature is broken.

[Animalthewolf]

Thanks for all the research. It sucks that the feature seems to be broken. Have you reported this finding to Google?