unable to delete mail

When I delete my messages on my macbook, I get a message saying that "messages could not be moved to mailbox trash - on my mac.
Error occurred while moving messages to mailbox trash on my mac.
When I click the ? it says Topic unavailable, could not be found

Hello and welcome to the forum!

You might want to provide some more information: 1) OS X installed; 2) Assume that you are using the 'Mail' app of OS? 3) Which mail service are you using, e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, other(s)? 4) How are the servers set up, i.e. IMAP or POP3 for incoming mail; SMTP for outgoing mail? and 5) Is the 'Trash' folder the one w/i the Mail app or the one on the server (mine has both). Answers to these questions will help others provide much more specific advice - good luck! Dave

I have OS X 10.7.5.
I have g mail (IMAP) and Thunderbird (Mozilla)(POP, outgoing is SMPT.
Trash folder is on the tool bar.

How would I find out if I'm using OS mail app?

cheald19 said:

I have OS X 10.7.5.
I have g mail (IMAP) and Thunderbird (Mozilla)(POP, outgoing is SMPT.
Trash folder is on the tool bar.

How would I find out if I'm using OS mail app?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information - also curious if this has always been an issue and 'how' the problem relates to the use of Thunderbird; now I've not used that program but assume that it is an email client that you installed on your computer - correct? If so, is your Gmail account configured w/i Thunderbird?

Now I'm on Mavericks (10.9) and have used 10.8 (assume that 10.7.5 is similar?) - the icon for the OS mail app (called 'Mail') is a postage stamp w/ a bird - attached is a portion of the app opened on my laptop; the mailboxes at the top are on my computer, while those listed under Yahoo are on their server (my account is w/ Yahoo; plus, I retrieve mail from a Road Runner account).

I'll stop there so you can respond to the questions above; if you are not using 'Mail', then switching over might be a consideration - Dave

Actually, I believe the problem may be with g mail. 99percent of my incoming and outgoing mail is from Thunderbird, which my internet provider installed.

I don't think that Thunderbird is configured with g mail, but I could be wrong.

All my deleted thunderbird messages end up in gmail deleted messages. The same problem I had when I had hotmail.

cheald19 said:

Actually, I believe the problem may be with g mail. 99percent of my incoming and outgoing mail is from Thunderbird, which my internet provider installed.

I don't think that Thunderbird is configured with g mail, but I could be wrong.

All my deleted thunderbird messages end up in gmail deleted messages. The same problem I had when I had hotmail.

Click to expand...

Well, I've never used Thunderbird, so cannot really help - I'm sure that your Gmail account could be configured into the email client, but you'll need to figure out how or obtain some assistance - sorry.

For me, I would probably want to remove Thunderbird and switch to the native Mail app as discussed in my previous post, but again I cannot help you in 'changing over' - not sure what else to suggest at this point - Dave

Thank you very much Dave.

Gmail is IMAP, meaning that it syncs with folders in the cloud (Google's servers) whilst your internet provider has given you a POP3 account, where the mail only gets stored on your PC under most circumstances.

It sounds like your mail program (I used to use Thunderbird when I had Windows PCs but haven't used it for about 3 years now) is trying to put the deleted messages into a local trash folder, and when you delete on your IMAP account it should actually go to the trash folder on the Gmail server.

If you highlight a Gmail message and try deleting it a different way (maybe try the delete key) does that give you the same error message?

You need to set up Thunderbird for imap for Gmail. Go here: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78892?hl=en&ref_topic=3397500
Click on Thunderbird. Might want to print it out. Also you need to set Gmail to imap if it isn't already.

Thank you. I believe I fixed the problem. I had to go to gmail.com and delete the messages from there. Hope it works..