Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

How do I stop my inbox from auto-compacting?

  • 5 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

ben178
ben178
more options

I've been using Thunderbird for a couple of years now and have always had it set up so that when I delete a message it gets marked as deleted, and then I manually compact the folder when ready.

A few months ago I started to notice that when deleting messages from my inbox they would be marked as read and then after a variable number of seconds they would be removed - as if the folder is auto-compacting itself. Strangely it only seems to be the inbox that is affected - all other folders are working as previously.

I don't remember changing any settings to have caused this change and I've tried unchecking the "Compact all folders..." option in the Disk Space settings but this hasn't made any difference.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

I've been using Thunderbird for a couple of years now and have always had it set up so that when I delete a message it gets marked as deleted, and then I manually compact the folder when ready. A few months ago I started to notice that when deleting messages from my inbox they would be marked as read and then after a variable number of seconds they would be removed - as if the folder is auto-compacting itself. Strangely it only seems to be the inbox that is affected - all other folders are working as previously. I don't remember changing any settings to have caused this change and I've tried unchecking the "Compact all folders..." option in the ''Disk Space'' settings but this hasn't made any difference. Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

All Replies (5)

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

You can try to increase the threshold when automatic compacting is triggered. The greater the threshold, the less frequent automatic compacting occurs. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compacting-folders#w_how-can-i-configure-compact

ben178
ben178 Question owner
more options

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately this did not fix the issue. As I stated in the initial post, unchecking the Compact all folders... option has made no difference so I don't think it is an issue of disk space.

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Compact isn't entirely about disk space. But more relevant...

> A few months ago I started to notice that when deleting messages from my inbox they would be marked as read and then after a variable number of seconds they would be removed

Sounds like a mail client on some other device causing this.

Modified by Wayne Mery

ben178
ben178 Question owner
more options

Thanks for the reply Wayne. Sorry there's a slight typo in my initial post - it should read A few months ago I started to notice that when deleting messages from my inbox they would be marked as deleted and then after a variable number of seconds they would be removed

I don't believe I've started using any new mail clients that co-incide with this issue occuring - Thunderbird has been my client of choice for a few years now - but I will do some digging thanks.

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Compact has been rewritten in version 128. If you are still seeing problems, please post a new support request, and private message me with the URL.