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Is there any option - when deleting a message, it's attachment would be deleted automatically?

  • 2 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Yannis

mmk1964
mmk1964
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In Mozilla Thunderbird, deleting a message having attachment does not delete the attachment automatically; need to delete the attachment first. I wish to have such a functionality/ option so that when I delete a message, its attachment would be deleted at the same time/automatically.

In Mozilla Thunderbird, deleting a message having attachment does not delete the attachment automatically; need to delete the attachment first. I wish to have such a functionality/ option so that when I delete a message, its attachment would be deleted at the same time/automatically.

All Replies (2)

Zenos
Zenos
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What is your evidence for saying that deleting a message doesn't also delete any attachments?

When you delete a message in Thunderbird it isn't actually deleted. It is marked for deletion and hidden from sight. It won't be removed from the mail store until you compact the folder.

Since an email message is just a series of bytes, there is no concept of header, message or attachment at the file system level. It's just a block of data. That's why I am sceptical of your claim that somehow attachments remain after deleting the message.

Yannis
Yannis
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Zenos said

What is your evidence for saying that deleting a message doesn't also delete any attachments? When you delete a message in Thunderbird it isn't actually deleted. It is marked for deletion and hidden from sight. It won't be removed from the mail store until you compact the folder. Since an email message is just a series of bytes, there is no concept of header, message or attachment at the file system level. It's just a block of data. That's why I am sceptical of your claim that somehow attachments remain after deleting the message.

I can provide you with pictures, if you ask. I have the same problem too. When I receive emails, I have, let's say 1000mb of data in my inbox (folder size is shown, as you may already have seen). When I delete the unwanted messages with attachments, the size does not alter; if I choose to delete the attachment before email, the attachment becomes unavailable, thus has been wiped out. I understand it is a feature of safety, but at least there should be a function that when I wipe out my trash folder, the attachments are also getting wiped out and the inbox folder size decreased. Nothing such as this happens though.