Trash Problem - TB17.0.3

[david foster]

I have a user who's trash is being kept for only about 3 weeks before
being deleted. She's one of those users who insists she has to have
access to an eternity worth of email in order to prove her case against
recalcitrant customers.. Therefore, trash is not to be emptied, ever,
apparently.

We had set the retention policy on the trash folder to never delete
messages, and that didn't work.

Yesterday, we changed the retention policy on Trash to "use my account
settings" and un-checked "Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit" in account
settings and confirmed that "Empty Trash on Exit" is not checked.

This morning she reported that she only has about 3 weeks worth of trash.

She's using TB17.0.3 and IMAP mail.

Does anybody have a suggestion how to prevent her mail from being
managed for her (or mis-managed, from her point of view, I guess)..

Thanks!
David



--
David Foster, CNE
Nashville - The Music City

[Thai Guy]

Shooting from the hip here because I don't use IMAP. If the host site
has a policy of deleting trash after 3 weeks, wouldn't that
automatically delete the headers from her own computer? Maybe a visit
to the host might clear it up.

[david foster]

Thanks for the reply, but our mail server doesn't have any such policy..
I use TB and IMAP myself, but I have my trash set to empty when I
close TB (I figure if I don't want it in the trash, I don't delete it,
but that's just me!)..

A note - yesterday we did temporarily uncheck the "compact all folders
when you can save xx MB" to see if that would help. It was this morning
that she reported all her mail over 3 weeks old was deleted.

I've tried to convince her to save her mail in folders but her problem
is that she doesn't know which mail she "might" need in the future. I've
tried comparing mail trash with the trash can at her desk (if you don't
want something thrown out, don't put it in your trash can!) to no avail.

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

david foster wrote:

>> david foster wrote, On 03/07/2013 09:41:
>>> I have a user who's trash is being kept for only about 3 weeks before
>>> being deleted. She's one of those users who insists she has to have
>>> access to an eternity worth of email in order to prove her case
>>> against recalcitrant customers.. Therefore, trash is not to be
>>> emptied, ever, apparently.
>

> I've tried to convince her to save her mail in folders but her problem
> is that she doesn't know which mail she "might" need in the future. I've
> tried comparing mail trash with the trash can at her desk (if you don't
> want something thrown out, don't put it in your trash can!) to no avail.

You have just posted the solution to her problem. The Trash folder was
never meant to be a *storage* folder. It is *trash* - to be taken to the
dump every so often, no matter what her particular preferences are for it.

If you can't convince her of this, sign off and look for someone else to
help. :-)

--
-bts
-This space for rent, but the price is high

[Thai Guy]

Been there, done that. Maybe you could ask her to create a "Suspense"
folder to store questionable emails. I have one that I put things in to
that I want to think about before deleting/taking action.

[david foster]

Yes, well, that's just what I'd like to do.. unfortunately, there's no
where else to go for help. I'm not buying Outlook for her nor setting up
Outlook Express. I've told her she can use our webmail if she wants.

But it does leave the question of why her TB is deleting her trash
that's more than 3 weeks old and keeping the rest of it. It'd be a shame
if that started happening in her other folders, I guess.

[Arivald]

W dniu 2013-03-07 15:41, david foster pisze:

Make her learn how "Archive" button work. So she should click "archive"
not "Delete". Then she will look for old messages in Archive folder, not
in trash.

--
Arivald

[david foster]

Wow - that was almost too easy.. I've never used the Archive folders
myself since I delete mail I want deleted and put mail I want in folders
into folders.. but we've now removed her Delete button and replaced it
with the Archive button and she's happy as can be. Thanks!

[Keith Nuttle]

I am not good at filters but can you set up a filter that will run on
the trash filter to move everything to a folder then tell her to look in
that folder instead of trash.

[david foster]

I had thought of doing something like that.. but I think the Archive
folder is going to work for her.. I'm still curious why this is
happening. Despite my opinion that Trash is for, well, Trash, the
end-user should be able to manage (or not) her mail however she wants..

If anybody knows of any reason for this happening, I'd love to hear it..
otherwise, Archive it is!

David

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

david foster wrote:

> But it does leave the question of why her TB is deleting her trash
> that's more than 3 weeks old and keeping the rest of it. It'd be a shame
> if that started happening in her other folders, I guess.

Well, the logical and obvious reason would be that there is a setting you
and she have missed setting. Are you sure she has right-clicked on the
Trash folder and selected "Properties" and then the "Retention Policy"
tab?

[ ] Use my account settings *is UNchecked*

(•) Delete messages more than [ 21] days old ???

But I agree the Archive-ing method is most likely what will serve her best.

[David E. Ross]

To repeat: Trash is indeed TRASH!! Does she store her bank statements
in a waste basket?

You must emphasize to your user that, if she really needs to retain
E-mail messages for legal reasons, she needs to download and store them
on her own computer and not rely on IMAP retention. ISPs often set
maximum storage limits, beyond which they might either start deleting
the oldest messages or else block the addition of new messages.
Sometimes, an ISP's server might fail, losing all of her messages.

Of course, downloading to her own computer means that she must also
periodically backup her files, at least monthly but preferably weekly or
even daily. Backups should be done to a removable hard drive that is
stored away from her computer ("away" meaning not even in the same
building). I make a full backup of a hard drive for one week. A week
later, I make an incremental backup of that same drive, doing that again
in the third week. Then, I start over, retaining six weeks of backups
(full, increment, increment, full, increment, increment). Having two
hard drives, I do the full of one in one week and the full of the other
in the following week.

--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>

Are taxes too high in the U.S.? Check the bar graph
at <http://www.rossde.com/taxes/trickling.html> to see.

[EE]

Why put messages in the trash if one wants to keep them? It is possible
to archive them. What is wrong with doing that?

[EE]

Also note that one should not use the Inbox as a storage facility. Set
up another folder or use Archive (which will set up another folder).

[david foster]

See above.. as I said, I never used the Archive function.. but she
thinks it's swell, now!

[david foster]

Well, yes, I did check that -- being a TB user since, well, before v1,
I'm fairly well-versed. I don't consider myself a genius, but I did
check that..

Archive seems to work for her so we'll leave it at that!

[david foster]

Yes thank you. Of course what I "must" do and what I can reasonably
accomplish are two different things.. surrounded as I am by people who
wear their ignorance of all things computer like a badge of honor :)

[david foster]

Agreed - no sub-folders under Inbox!