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Denc nañu waxtaan wii. Yónneel yeneen laaj soo soxlaa ndimbal.

Unable to delete phantom folders in the Trash folder

Don Peters
Don Peters
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I'm migrating my email from Microsoft's Windows Live Mail to Firebird, and to Microsoft Outlook (as an experiment). My email server is Comcast. Due to Windows Live Mail sporadic crashing on email export, phantom folders were created on the Comcast mail server. Since I set it up as IMAP, these phantom folders are also shown in Firebird. (Phantom means the folder names are in light gray italics, and the folders can't be deleted.)

With some effort, I deleted them from my Comcast server - or it appeared so. But they still appear in the Firebird Trash folder. I can delete them there, but they then reappear upon a restart of Firebird. Deleting the Trash.sbd folder and Trash.msf file in my IMAP profile folder doesn't help, as they both simply get rebuilt again upon a restart of Firebird.

Yes, I suspect those phantom (empty) folders are still on the Comcast server. I've got multiple calls into Comcast on this issue, but they don't respond (except to issue me a new ticket number). Yet my Outlook email client seems to realize that these Comcast phantom folders are not real, and ignores them. I wish Firebird would do the same. Is there some configuration setting that will do that?

I'm migrating my email from Microsoft's Windows Live Mail to Firebird, and to Microsoft Outlook (as an experiment). My email server is Comcast. Due to Windows Live Mail sporadic crashing on email export, phantom folders were created on the Comcast mail server. Since I set it up as IMAP, these phantom folders are also shown in Firebird. (Phantom means the folder names are in light gray italics, and the folders can't be deleted.) With some effort, I deleted them from my Comcast server - or it appeared so. But they still appear in the Firebird Trash folder. I can delete them there, but they then reappear upon a restart of Firebird. Deleting the Trash.sbd folder and Trash.msf file in my IMAP profile folder doesn't help, as they both simply get rebuilt again upon a restart of Firebird. Yes, I suspect those phantom (empty) folders are still on the Comcast server. I've got multiple calls into Comcast on this issue, but they don't respond (except to issue me a new ticket number). Yet my Outlook email client seems to realize that these Comcast phantom folders are not real, and ignores them. I wish Firebird would do the same. Is there some configuration setting that will do that?

Saafara biñ tànn

Firebird is an SQL database https://firebirdsql.org/ So I assume that you are referring to Thunderbird as this is the support forum for that product.

Right click the account in the folder pane, select settings. In the server settings for the account select the advanced button. Check the show only subscribed folders.

That should hide them, but it does not fix the Comcast server issue.

Jàng tontu lii ci fi mu bokk 👍 1

All Replies (6)

apollothethird
apollothethird
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Look for a purge option in each of the Email clients you have been using. There's a chance the folders just might be marked for deleting, or they might have some emails that are marked for deleting that needs to be removed via the purge function.

-- L. James

-- L. D. James ljames@apollo3.com www.apollo3.com/~ljames

Don Peters
Don Peters Ki laajte
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Thanks for the reply, but it wasn't helpful: 

  - Firebird has no purge option
  - Microsoft Outlook doesn't show these phantom files - only Firebird does

  - Windows Live Mail is a POP3 protocol, and doesn't show these phantom folders
Matt
Matt
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Saafara yiñ Tànn

Firebird is an SQL database https://firebirdsql.org/ So I assume that you are referring to Thunderbird as this is the support forum for that product.

Right click the account in the folder pane, select settings. In the server settings for the account select the advanced button. Check the show only subscribed folders.

That should hide them, but it does not fix the Comcast server issue.

Don Peters
Don Peters Ki laajte
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Matt, that did it! Thanks!

Interestingly, at first all the phantom folders would populate when Thunderbird started up, and then over about 20 seconds they'd be automatically removed. But then while there were about half populated, I right clicked on Trash and selected "Empty Trash". After that, they no longer populated upon Thunderbird startup.

ps Sorry for my "bird" confusion in my previous postings.

apollothethird
apollothethird
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Mistake post. Please delete.

apollothethird moo ko soppali ci

apollothethird
apollothethird
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Don-Peters said

Thanks for the reply, but it wasn't helpful: - Firebird has no purge option - Microsoft Outlook doesn't show these phantom files - only Firebird does - Windows Live Mail is a POP3 protocol, and doesn't show these phantom folders


My reference was for you to use Purge from the email clients that has a purge option. As far as Thunderbird , it has a purge option. In Thunderbird it's called Compact.

The other clients that does have the purge option may hide files set for purge, therefor you wouldn't see them in those clients.

Sorry the answer doesn't have any merit for you. But when I have a problem, I have to eliminate all the possible culprits before looking for something else.

I have a couple of other possible culprits, but am reluctant to ask you to test them. I'll have to install perform experiments in my environment and try to produce what you are saying and try to be more exact rather than giving you the steps to test.

-- L. James

-- L. D. James ljames@apollo3.com www.apollo3.com/~ljames