How to re enable confirmation warnings before deleting an email or Emptying the Trash Folder on Mozilla Thunderbird

I tend to delete emails from Thunderbird using SHIFT+DEL out of habit when I’m sure I don’t want that message any more, but recently I accidentally ticked the check-box that tells Thunderbird not to ask me if I’m sure I want to delete such message(s).

Although safer, I didn’t want to delete messages then empty the trash. For whatever reason I wanted to return to the past behavior. In case this has happened to you, here are the steps to get the warning back:

• Go to the Tools Menu
• Click on Options
• Click on Advanced

The picture below shows the Options-Advanced Window. In the lower right you’ll see the “Config Editor” button. Click on It.

You will receive a fair warning as this. Click on I’ll be careful, I promise!

Now you’re on the configuration section. The value I want to change here is:

mail.warn_on_shift_delete   from false to true. To change the value, just double click on the line.

If you want to re-enable the confirmation for emptying the Trash folder, the value you should modify is:

mailnews.emptyTrash.dontAskAgain    from true to false.

* Mozilla Thunderbird Version 38 used.

I hope this information is useful. Buy me a coffee?

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• thunderbird