Automatically delete junk settings not deleting old emails
For awhile now I've been unable to get the "Automatically delete junk mail older than X days" function to operate properly in my account settings. I currently have it set to 14 days, but junk emails older than 14 days don't delete.
I've tried going through Junk > Properties > Retention Policy to set the limit there, but the result is the same. The junk emails that are older than the set time limit don't delete.
I've tried quitting and reopening the program, but that doesn't help.
I've tried reinstalling the program, but that only seems to help for awhile before this function stops working again.
Occasionally (I don't know why), I'll find that those junk emails with dates older than the set limits will delete themselves, but this doesn't happen very often. In fact, I can't remember the last time it deleted them.
Suggestions?
Chosen solution
Right click on Inbox and select 'Compact'
In Account Settings > 'Server Settings' How frequently do you check for new mail? Is 'Clean up (Expunge) Inbox on exit' selected ?
In Account Settings > 'Synchronisation & storage' Is this selected: 'Keep messages in all folders for this account...' ? Click on 'Advanced' Is 'Junk' folder selected ?
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I gave thought to what you said (below) about junk and spam folders.
While the solution you suggested didn't work, it made me think that maybe there's something that Thunderbird doesn't like about having both folders.
So I moved all of the mail from the Junk folder to the spam folder. Then I deleted the Junk folder. Then I re-ran the Compact command. This resulted in the emails in the spam folder to delete all messages in the folder that are more than 30 days old.
The only problem with this result is that the Account settings said to delete anything in spam more than 14 days old.
So while this issue isn't solved, I feel like I stumbled upon something. I'm not sure what, though.
Toad-Hall said
There is something not quite right about this. You are using an Imap mail account. Your images show that you have a 'Junk' folder and a 'Spam' folder. 'Junk' is usually a folder created by Thunderbird for POP mail accounts and 'Spam' is usually the server folder for all spam/junk mail. So it is a bit more unusual to see both. Did you manually create both of those folders or ... I located some info via cpanel webmail info that might explain things. When you create a new email account, the Dovecot mail server creates a Junk mailbox by default. When you access that new email account via the Roundcube webmail application, Roundcube will create a separate, additional bulk spam mailbox. This behavior causes the Roundcube webmail interface to display a Junk mailbox and a spam mailbox. So I'm wondering if there is some confusion about what is recognised as the junk folder. Sometimes Imap accounts seem to work better if you select the 'Other' option and then choose the folder on imap account. In Thunderbird 'Account Settings' > 'Junk Settings' for imap account.
- Select 'Move new junk messages to'
- Select 'Other' and choose the 'Junk folder on imap mail account'
- select 'Automatically delete junk mail older than 14 days.'
- click on 'OK'
- Restart Thunderbird to ensure it uses new settings.
Well, I don't know what happened to cause it, but as of today Thunderbird is now deleting old emails according to the set schedule. Thanks to all for your help.