Ghost Folders

riw · Post by **riw** » August 4th, 2006, 8:04 am

Y'all:

I have several folders that I can't get rid of in an IMAP mail account. Several of these are in the trash folder; they disappear when I clean out the trash, but then reappear when I start thunderbird again. One, however, is a subfolder under a normal folder. When I try to delete it, thunderbird returns an error that the folder can't be found.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Anyone have any ideas about what is causing this? I've deleted the msf files for all of these folders, and also the sbd folders, I even have two different profiles I use to access this account, and both show these folders. When I access the account in Outlook, none of these extra folders show up. I've also compacted all of these folders numerous times....

Thanks!

Russ

ecompas · Post by **ecompas** » August 6th, 2006, 6:13 pm

Same problem. Attempted similar fix by deleting msf files and folders (as per http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... map+folder). Folder reappears on restart.

Other places to check? Remove? IMAP server problem?

Thanks,

-Eric

riw · Post by **riw** » December 18th, 2007, 8:53 am

I'm actually still having this problem.... I figured I'd bump it back up a little, and see if anyone has any new ideas on it. I've tried removing all the msf and other files, to no avail....

Thoughts?

:-)

Russ

Post by **Daifne** » December 18th, 2007, 9:47 am

With IMAP, you have to delete the folders on the server.

riw · Post by **riw** » December 18th, 2007, 11:23 am

Daifne wrote:With IMAP, you have to delete the folders on the server.

Using what? When I look at my folders in Outlook's web access software, these "ghosts" aren't there.... How else could I look at them? I don't know if I can get "on the server" in this environment.... It's an exchange server that I'm accessing through IMAP.

Thanks!

:-)

Russ

Post by **Daifne** » December 18th, 2007, 3:50 pm

Then, if they are not in the Web access software, delete the .msf files for them in your ImapMail folder in your profile. Also make sure that you have unsubscribed from them.

bkennelly · Post by **bkennelly** » December 19th, 2007, 9:15 am

Daifne's last comment is the most likely culprit. The IMAP protocol allows the server to remember subscriptions for folders that no longer exist.

Thunderbird, when using its default setting of 'Show only subscribed folders', shows all subscribed folders, even if they don't exist. (Normally, when you delete a folder in TB, it will be unsubscribed automatically.)

When you unsubscribe from a non-existent folder, it will disappear from the folder pane and the subscription list.