How to Set-Up Custom folders in Mozilla Thunderbird

I use an IMAP mail account that places deleted items in the Trash folder. I needed to set up Mozilla Thunderbird to use this instead of the default folder. Here’s what I did.

In Edit > Account Settings > Server Settings set  When I delete a message: to Move it to the Deleted folder and tick the Cleanup (“Expunge”) Inbox on Exit box. Close Account Settings.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor…, right click in the main window and select New String and enter the following in the dialogue box:

mail.server.server1.Trash

In the next box add:

Trash

Close Thunderbird. Once restarted there’s a single deleted items folder (Deleted) that corresponds to the Trash folder on the IMAP server.

Tested with Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 on Ubuntu 9.04 x86-64.