How to delete email message in Mozilla Thunderbird?

Press Delete in Thunderbird to remove the selected message. If you remove the wrong one, press Ctrl+Z or choose Edit > Undo straight away to put it back, as long as you did not use Shift+Delete.

Step 1: Delete the message

In Thunderbird’s main window, select the message and click the Delete button in the message header or press the Delete key. The message is removed according to the account’s delete behaviour. On most IMAP accounts that means it moves to Trash. Do not press Shift+Delete unless you want a permanent removal with no undo.

Step 2: Undo or recover a deletion

To undo immediately, use Edit > Undo or press Ctrl+Z. If your account moves deletions to Trash, look in the account’s Trash folder for the message and restore it from there. Do not compact folders if you are trying to recover something you deleted. Compacting permanently removes messages that were only marked as deleted or moved and can make recovery impossible.

Step 3: Set how deletion works on your account

For IMAP accounts, go to Account Settings > Server Settings in Thunderbird. Under “When I delete a message”, choose one:

• Move it to this folder: sends deleted mail to the account’s Trash.
• Just mark it as deleted: leaves the message struck through until it is expunged.
• Remove it immediately: deletes without moving it to any folder.

Related options there include “Clean up (Expunge) Inbox on Exit” and “Empty Trash on Exit”. Enabling them will permanently remove mail during exit, so only turn them on if that is what you want.

Gmail IMAP

Gmail uses labels. Google’s guidance recommends setting “When I delete a message” to “Just mark it as deleted” for Gmail IMAP. Otherwise copies may remain under All Mail or deletions may not behave as you expect.

Step 4: Make sure Trash is the right folder

If Trash is missing or not catching deletions on an IMAP account, subscribe to your provider’s Trash/Deleted/Bin folder first. Then set “When I delete a message: Move it to this folder” and pick that Trash. Providers label Trash differently, so choose the server’s actual Trash/Deleted folder rather than a local one.

If it does not work

• Deleted messages show with a strike-through and do not disappear: your IMAP account is set to “Just mark it as deleted”. Change it to “Move it to this folder” if you want a normal Trash workflow, or expunge the folder to clear the crossed-out items. You can also enable “Clean up (Expunge) Inbox on Exit”.
• Trash is missing, “Empty Trash” is not there, or Trash will not empty: subscribe to the server’s Trash/Deleted/Bin as above, then set “Move it to this folder” to that Trash. If “Empty Trash” still is not present or Trash will not clear, right click Trash, choose Repair Folder, then try again.
• You pressed A and the message “disappeared”: A archives, it does not delete. Check the Archives folder for the message.

What next

If your mailbox is hosted with Hostworld and you still cannot delete or recover messages as above, please open a support ticket and tell us which account and folder you are working in. If you run your own mail on a Hostworld VPS, see our VPS guides for server-side housekeeping. Planning mail services on a new server? Review our Linux VPS options.