Apparent new feature wrongly demands trashing of deleted emails as the default
In Thunderbird all of a sudden (I assume this is a brand new feature came with a recent automatic behind-the-scenes update) every 2nd or 3rd time that I Delete an email or move a message from the Trash to somewhere else I get a pop-up suggesting "The messages you have deleted can be purged from disk. This operation will save about 21.0 MB of disk space. Select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you". That in itself is quite a nuisance but what really bothers me is that the default response is set to yes, Proceed. Unless I expressly click on the Cancel button Thunderbird is going to permanently delete 100% of my deleted emails, yes?? But it is vital that I retain most or many of those deleted messages for later retrieval. It truly does come in handy now and again. I periodically scour the Trash and permanently delete so many extraneous messages, but I clearly don't want to ever delete ALL of them!! I don't want this behavior as default, that Thunderbird is forever demanding this pop-up question of me and if I should accidently hit Return all of some precious resources of mine get obliterated forever! Thank you.
Chosen solution
Well if it is merely about compacting then fine, no balk from me; but it explicitly uses the term "purge". So I backed up my profile identity folders, one from within Appdata/Local and one from within Appdata/Roaming, and tried answering "Proceed" to the usual pop-up. You were right! ..nothing gets deleted. I am deeply relieved, many thanks. To me, purge is synonymous with delete -- POOR choice of wording. I will go ahead and mark this solved :)
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This is downright AWFUL! What a detestable nuisance! It pops up with this absurd inquiry every single time I move a message from one folder to another. If I let the default ride then I lose some precious resources, possibly dating back many years!
Couldn't you fix this danged awful behavior or make it stifle-able
Select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you".
This is what you should do.
Unless I expressly click on the Cancel button Thunderbird is going to permanently delete 100% of my deleted emails, yes??
No. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders
I don't want this behavior as default, that Thunderbird is forever demanding this pop-up question of me ...
As already stated above, follow the suggestion, and you won't be bothered again. "Select the option below to let Thunderbird do this automatically without asking you".
... and if I should accidently hit Return all of some precious resources of mine get obliterated forever!
Your assumption is wrong. This is not what happens.
There are plenty of other possible reasons outside of Thunderbird why your 'precious resources' could 'get obliterated'. This is what backups are for. Are you creating backups of your Thunderbird profile on a regular basis? https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-where-thunderbird-stores-user-data#w_backing-up-a-profile
Chosen Solution
Well if it is merely about compacting then fine, no balk from me; but it explicitly uses the term "purge". So I backed up my profile identity folders, one from within Appdata/Local and one from within Appdata/Roaming, and tried answering "Proceed" to the usual pop-up. You were right! ..nothing gets deleted. I am deeply relieved, many thanks. To me, purge is synonymous with delete -- POOR choice of wording. I will go ahead and mark this solved :)
Sorry, yes the wording is confusing. Thanks for pointing this out.
Version 91 comes out in several weeks, in which the language of the compact dialog has been greatly improved. When you install version 91, if compact causes problems, please create a new support topic.