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Thunderbird folder retention policy

  • 2 majibu
  • 1 ana tatizo hili
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  • Last reply by cjtexas93

georgeriner
georgeriner
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I experimented using the folder retention policy for emails. I left 'Always keep starred messages' checked so that I could set either 'Delete all but the most recent N messages' or 'Delete messages more than N days old', but I discover that when a folder fills up with starred messages, new messages get immediately deleted. I need the retention policy to keep starred messages but ignore starred messages when applying the either the 'Delete all but the most recent N' or 'Delete message more than N days old'. I use starred messages sot that I can keep them long-term / indefinitely. I need the retention policy - for unstarred messages - that I need. So that if I select 'Delete all but the most recent 30 messages' and the folder has 100 starred messages, it will keep the 100 starred messages but only keep the most recent 30 unstarred messages. In addition to the 100 starred messages. Likewise if I select 'Delete messages more than 100 days old' and the folder has 200 starred messages, then the starred messages will be kept no matter how old they are (i.e. indefinitely) but the oldest un-starred message in the folder will be at most 100 days old, and the older starred messages will be kept.

I experimented using the folder retention policy for emails. I left 'Always keep starred messages' checked so that I could set either 'Delete all but the most recent N messages' or 'Delete messages more than N days old', but I discover that when a folder fills up with starred messages, new messages get immediately deleted. I need the retention policy to keep starred messages but ignore starred messages when applying the either the 'Delete all but the most recent N' or 'Delete message more than N days old'. I use starred messages sot that I can keep them long-term / indefinitely. I need the retention policy - for unstarred messages - that I need. So that if I select 'Delete all but the most recent 30 messages' and the folder has 100 starred messages, it will keep the 100 starred messages but only keep the most recent 30 unstarred messages. In addition to the 100 starred messages. Likewise if I select 'Delete messages more than 100 days old' and the folder has 200 starred messages, then the starred messages will be kept no matter how old they are (i.e. indefinitely) but the oldest un-starred message in the folder will be at most 100 days old, and the older starred messages will be kept.

All Replies (2)

david
david
  • Top 10 Contributor
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My suggestion is to change strategy. Set up a new local folder for messages to be kept indefinitely and move those messages to that folder. That leaves you free to manage to the other folder with a retention policy. As you point out, attempting to manage a folder with messages to keep indefinitely while also attempting to have a retention policy on other messages is a difficult task.

cjtexas93
cjtexas93
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I "think" there's a bigger problem here:

I right clicked the "Trash" folder on one of my email accounts -->Then "Properties" -->"Retention Policy" Tab --> uncheckmarked "Use my account settings --> checkmarked "Delete all but the most recent" 400 "messages"

But TB instead deleted the most recent 400 messages. So, the result was the complete opposite!

Using the "Delete messages more than" xxx "days old" seems to work okay.