Q: Why is "Erase Junk Mail" greyed out?

This command has quite possibly been grayed out since 2006 (for 10 years).  Perhaps because Apple does not want you deleting their emails.  But, seriously, it seems like a gazillion people have had the same problem (unaddressed by Apple) and the only solution offered is to change your junk mail preferences to "Move it to the Junk mailbox".

  Absolutely not a single clue have I found in 10 years why a user cannot define "Perform custom actions" to send emails to junk mailbox and then get to "Erase Junk Mail" with all the ease of a keystroke or contextual menu.

The easiest no-frustration solution may be to switch to Microsoft Outlook.

I agree with Longwings frustration. As I work at a Swedish University I'm counted as an official representative of the Swedish government and with that comes tonnes of rules of what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not allowed to do. As all the emails I get are potentially an email to a government representative I'm not allowed to set my email client to automatically delete emails. I am allowed to set it to automatically send it to a separate mailbox (e.g. Junk mailbox) that I "regularly" glance through (quickly) before deleting the spam emails.

The problem is, however, that to make sure that I really see the emails I need to see I can't rely on Apples junk-filter alone, but need the advanced options (e.g. excluding emails from certain addresses). And for some strange reason Apple has decided that if you use the advanced options the "Erase Junk Mail" command is greyed out.

Come on Apple, show us that you care for your customers and solve this issue!

It appears to be a bug.

On the other hand, if you create advanced rules you can easily delete junk mail automatically using those rules and never have to see it.

This is a user-to-user forum.

If you want to let Apple know, use feedback.

http://www.apple.com/feedback

1. Perhaps you didn't understand what I wrote? The Swedish legislation does not allow me to follow your suggested solution to the problem. Breaking the law is not a god thing if you're a government official...

2. Apple already knows about this and has known about it for years. It does not seem to be a bug as such, but rather a design choice (although a really bad one in my opinion). It wont help if a single individual asks them to change their design, many people would have to push them to make them change it