Deleting emails in Mail

Why can I not delete emails in the "Important" folder in Mail?

Hi Chris,
Search for 'Deleted Messages.mbox' in a Finder window with 'system files included'.
This will bring up a folder for each email account you hold plus an additional one.
You will need to follow the paths for each folder. It's a bit tedious. The emails will be named '12345.emlx' and you should be able to get a preview of them without opening Mail. Just move them to trash.
I regularly find emails that I deleted weeks and months ago. I thought they might be taken care of by the maintenance scripts, but they're not.
Remember that you are tinkering around with system files here so be careful. Make sure Mail is closed, make sure you have a working back-up, and make sure you definitely don't need what you're deleting!

Similar Messages

How do I delete emails in Mail App that are no longer on the server?

HI,
I have configured the Mail App on my brand new iPad to receive emails from my provider GMX.net. It is a POP3 account. The emails stay on the server until I fetch them with Outlook 2003 on my PC. After retrieving emails with Outlook they are deleted from the server. That is what I want. But the emails stay in the Mail App on my iPad. I also can’t delete emails with the iPad on the server.
How can I do that?

If you are accessing emails from multiple devices, you are better off using the IMAP protocol. Then the devices sync with the server and they are all looking at the same information. With POP, you are going to get your emails spread about, some on Outlook, some on the iPad. It could get very confusing.
By default, the iPad will not delete from a POP server. Instructions for changing this are here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3228

Deleted emails in Mail keep coming back since 10.10.3 update

Mac Mail won't let me delete email or move email to other mailboxes since updating to 10.10.3. I delete messages or move them to other folders/mailboxes, and they keep coming back to my Inbox. Some messages come back almost instantly. Some come back after a few minutes. Other messages have come back that I deleted earlier in the day. There don't appear to be duplicates, since the messages I deleted aren't in the trash or in the folder/mailbox to which I moved them. Some messages have stayed in the trash, but when I try to permanently delete them, they reappear. The only way I've been able to permanently delete messages is by going online and deleting them in Gmail. I have used Gmail in combination with Mail for years without problems, and I had been using an earlier version of Yosemite without problems. My mail account is a Gmail account set up as IMAP. I have folders/mailboxes that are in Gmail and I have folders/mailboxes that are on my computer, but the messages I move won't stay in either type of mailbox. I tried rebuilding the mail envelop with Onyx which has helped with Mail quirks in the past, but this time it did nothing to solve the problem.
Macbook Pro, Mid 2010, 2.66 GHz, Intel Core i7

I have an android phone. If I read a message on my phone, it still shows up on my desktop.
One of the problems with deleting messages is that I when I delete messages from the main Inbox (the Inbox that includes all incoming messages from all accounts), some of those messages stay in the Inbox for the individual account as unread. A typical scenario is that after reading all of my new email and deleting messages, I notice that Mail shows that I still have unread mail. So I go to the Inbox for an individual email account, and there are a bunch messages that I deleted (sometimes half, sometimes all of what I deleted) that are in the Inbox of the individual account and show as unread. Then when I go back to the main Inbox, and all of the messages that I deleted are suddenly back in the that Inbox. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to which messages get stuck. Sometimes the messages go away on their own. Sometimes they won't ever go away. I delete them from the main Inbox; they come back. I delete them from the individual account Inbox; they come back. I go to the Trash, delete them before they've gone back the the Inboxes, and they come back. The only way I can get rid of these zombie messages is to access the account through a browser and delete those messages online.
Another problem I have, is that Mail is constantly asking me to re-enter the password for one of my email accounts. Fortunately, it's an account I use less frequently, but it's a real problem when I Mail asks me to re-setup up an account every time I open Mail.
The problem has doubled or tripled the time it takes for me to keep track of my email. I'm going through reviews and looking for a replacement for Mail. I will be the first time I've used something besides Mail since I used Eudora (during the time when it was the best program available and you had to buy it).

Automatically delete emails in Mail for OS X

I currently have Mail set up so that it automatically archives emails received beyond a certain date to my Time Capsule. However, I then have to go into my inbox and delete the ones that I no longer need.
As such, is there any way of setting up Mail to automatically delete emails in my inbox, preferably a couple of days after my archive schedule so that they're not deleted before they can be archived! I note in Preferences that there is an option for Trash and Sent, but not the Inbox.
Cheers.

sure. see my post here
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7458169&#7458169
one change to this link. Cronnix does not seem to be avalaible any more. you can make a launch daemon to periodically run the script using Lingon. or you can use automator to make an ical plugin out of it and run it periodically using ical.

Can i delete emails in mail without having to delete them in the original mail program.

I wish I did not need to use my original Llive account to organize and delete emails, etc. I was hoping just to start using Mail and editing everything from the Apple mail program instead of having to do it in both Mail and in Live. Otherwise, it accumalates a lot of email in both places. It is supposed to make it easier so I do not have to do everything twice.

samberl wrote:
Option 1.
In Mail Preferences, select Advanced tab for your Mail Account and check the "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message" option. This will delete all your messages from Live.
This selection will only remove new mail (i.e. mail received after you make this selection)
Option 2.
Right click on your Mail Account in the Viewer Window and select "Get Account Info". This will allow you to select and delete messages from Server you don't want and keep the ones you do.
This is no different from going to the web interface and deleting the mail from there.
If the OP wants to keep the webmail and mac mail in sync then Live is the wrong system, an iMap or Exchange system is needed.

HT1694 When I attempt to delete emails my mail crashes. I have rebooted and synced...still does it. Any advice?

When I attempt to delete emails on my iPad my mail crashes. I have rebooted and synced and it still happens. Any ideas?

Close the Mail app in the Task Bar and re-launch.
Double-click the Home button to reveal Task Bar. Hold Mail app down for a second or two; tap the minus sign to close app.
If it still doesn't work, try a reset.
Hold the Sleep and Home button down (together) for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo. Ignore the red slider.

How to permanently delete email in mail app?

Hi! I am using a 2011 macbook pro and it has been running extremely slow lately. When I started looking into things, it seems that my mail app is saving every email I have ever received, even though I have spent hours deleting them. It seems that they are not being permanently deleted.. I always highlight the message (or several) in the mail app and then click the trashcan. Am I doing something wrong? Please help!

Which os are you using?
How large is your hard drive and how much hard drive space do you have left?

Not able to delete email in mail 3.0

everytime i try to delete mail in mail 3.0 (using aol's imap and smtp servers) mail gives me an error stating: message: (title of message from [email protected] could not be saved to the mailbox "deleted messages - My email address - AOL Mail
Any help?

I have the same problem! Before Leopard (with Tiger), could click Delete on a message and it went into trash. Now, I get "The message “[title of email: date]” could not be moved to the mailbox “Deleted Messages — [username for email]" and then below that message in the same box: "The IMAP command “UID COPY” (to Deleted Messages) failed for the mailbox “INBOX” with server error: UID COPY failed Deleted Messages: no such mailbox."
Um. How can I fix this? It is a royal pain not be able to delete messages.
I also cannot delete them from my individual inboxes; it's not just the collective INBOX.
Mail Help? just tells me to set my account prefs (Mailbox Behaviors) for when to erase deleted messages. That's already set up.
Anyone have a clue how to solve this?

Delete emails on Mail.app and remain on gmail server

Hello,
I have 128 GB HDD and many emails syncing by Gmail IMAP. Thousands of emails are stored on my HDD and most of them I will never use in the future. Despite this I'd like to keep them in gmail server, just for case...
I was trying to reduce size of my Mail.app for very long time and nothing works correctly.
Ideal situation would be something like this:
E-mails older than 2 months will automatically delete from Mail.app but not from server. Or it doesn't have to be automatic, but I have to keep them on gmail.com. I'm not sure if it is possible with IMAP.
Please, do you have some experience with this problem?
Thanks,
Jan

Hi jvaclavik,
Mail that is kept in an IMAP account will show in your mail account on the Mac but it stays on the server. See this article -
iCloud: IMAP
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2585
You may want to use the Mac OS X Mail Archive feature, described here -
Mail (Mavericks): Archive messages
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14894
Gmail has its own Archive feature, described here -
iOS: Understanding Gmail Archive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4207
Though the article is in support of iOS devices, the archive feature applies to Macs as well.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Deleting Webmail doesn't delete emails in Mail

I am new to Mail, having previously used Entourage. While at work or another location, I access my email using Cox Webmail. When I deleted these messages in Webmail, they would automatically be deleted in Entourage.
But now that I'm using Apple Mail and do this, the messages do not delete, but simply reload on my Mail program when I fire up my Macbook at home. Also, if I receive email at home, delete messages and then open up Cox Webmail, all of the deleted messages load onto the Cox Webmail.
I tried to find a fix on the Cox Webmail with no luck, so I was wondering if there is a fix for this in Mail. Or, is there some minor preference tweak that I'm not seeing to fix this.

You probably have the email set up as a POP account. If you can set it up as an IMAP account then it will react as you want.

Can't delete emails in mail (gmail account)

In the last few days/week when I delete / trash in the Mac email app it disappears then re-appears after a few minutes!
What can I do to prevent this?

In the last few days/week when I delete / trash in the Mac email app it disappears then re-appears after a few minutes!
What can I do to prevent this?

Cannot delete emails in Mail

Hey everyone, since I upgraded to Mavericks I just cannot delete the emails I need. Some advices say to delete the account and create the same again, but it does not work in my case. Could you help me please? Thank you very much

This does not answer/solve the OP's question/problem as they would still have to select each email individually before selecting the "delete all" button. In the end this the same as selecting "delete" on each message individiually.
There is no practical way to do what the OP wants.

Can't delete email from Mail inbox

getting this error message: "“1359.emlx” couldn’t be copied to “Messages” because an item with the same name already exists".

Back up all data. Rebuild the mailbox. Try again to delete the message.

My iphone 4s keeps storing deleted emails. How can I get rid o them?

My iPhone 4s keeps storing deleted emails. How can I get rid of them?

Hello RickJFalcon,
After reviewing your post, it sounds like you want to delete emails from Mail. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help the issue.
iCloud: Reduce email storage space
Delete messages, which moves them to the Trash, by doing any of the following:
Delete a message that’s open: Tap .
Delete a message without opening it: Swipe from the right to left over the message title in the message list, then tap Trash.
Delete multiple messages: While viewing the message list, tap Edit.
To permanently erase all messages in the Trash and free up iCloud storage space, tap Trash in the list of iCloud mailboxes, tap Edit, then tap Delete All.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

Still Can't Delete Emails

I have seen several threads from the past few months about not being able to delete email from Mail. I have Mail 3.2 running 10.5.2 and out of the blue Mail stopped deleting messages. They turn grey for a bit after being deleted, but eventually become black again. I have Mail set to move deleted messages to the Trash folder immediately. I have tried rebuilding, reboot then rebuilding, tossing out the plist preferences. Nothing seems to work. The only solution I have seen on the forums that says it works it to upgrade to 10.5.2, but I'm already there.
Thanks

Yes, their email is powered by Yahoo! who is having critical issues with their email products. It's been all over the news so I'm surprised you didn't see it.
http://bgr.com/2013/12/16/yahoo-mail-access-restored-mayer-apology/
Looks like you just need to wait it out. Good luck!

Deleting emails in Mail

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