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How to stop empty 'phantom' folders continually reappearing when deleted

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 189 views
  • Last reply by finleyluke

finleyluke
finleyluke
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I have a bunch of email subfolders showing up in Thunderbird which have nothing in them. Their names appear in italic, greyed-out. No matter how many times I delete them, when I reopen Thunderbird they've just reappeared in their previous location. This includes three in the Deleted folder.

I'm using IMAP and the phantom folders are not there in my provider's webmail interface, so it must be a local problem.

I know from internet search that lots of people have had this. Solutions elsewhere that I've already tried and that didn't work:

- unsubscribing from the folders: they appear in the subscribed list but without any checkbox next to them - deleting the .msf, panacea, etc. files: the folders reappear just the same after doing this

Has anyone found a fix that works? This is my work email account and the clutter in my folder pane is really unhelpful!

I have a bunch of email subfolders showing up in Thunderbird which have nothing in them. Their names appear in italic, greyed-out. No matter how many times I delete them, when I reopen Thunderbird they've just reappeared in their previous location. This includes three in the Deleted folder. I'm using IMAP and the phantom folders are not there in my provider's webmail interface, so it must be a local problem. I know from internet search that lots of people have had this. Solutions elsewhere that I've already tried and that didn't work: - unsubscribing from the folders: they appear in the subscribed list but without any checkbox next to them - deleting the .msf, panacea, etc. files: the folders reappear just the same after doing this Has anyone found a fix that works? This is my work email account and the clutter in my folder pane is really unhelpful!

Chosen solution

See this topic: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1246828

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sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

See this topic: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1246828

finleyluke
finleyluke Question owner
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Thanks - finally, have solved this!

For others' benefit: the solution that worked for me was to uncheck the 'Show only subscribed folders' box in Account Settings>Server Settings>Advanced. I can't see how this worked, but at least it did.