IMAP trash emptying on its own

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Level 1

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IMAP trash emptying on its own

I've searched for anyone else having this issue to no avail.

I have setup a folder called iPhone Trash on my Mail server. I assigned it on my iPhone as the trash can and set that IMAP account to NEVER delete messages. It properly drops the message in that box when I delete it and I can see it on my web-based mail client.

The issue is, every day or so, that box empties out. I haven't set any special rules on my server to delete messages from this box. I have the proper setting on the iPhone not to delete messages. Why is this trash emptying?

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Thanks for any help.

Regards,

Clay

17" Macbook Pro - 20" Intel iMac - iPhone (8GB), Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 16, 2007 2:27 PM

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Answer 1

nycruza

Level 2

341 points

Jul 16, 2007 6:20 PM in response to claydough

The issue is, every day or so, that box empties out.
I haven't set any special rules on my server to
delete messages from this box. I have the proper
setting on the iPhone not to delete messages. Why
is this trash emptying?

You have the proper settings on iPhone; you have proper settings on server
BUT
what about your mail.app on your computer?

Just a thought 🙂

ajm

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Answer 2

claydough Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 17, 2007 7:16 AM in response to nycruza

Ya, I have checked mail.app on my system. I have it configured to use a different folder for trash...the reason... When I had the iPhone and mail.app configured to use the same folder for trash, "something" would empty that trash. I needed to isolate who was deleting the trash. I decided to config mail.app to use the normal trash folder on the IMAP server, and then have the iPhone use a newly created "iPhone Trash" folder so I could see which one would spontaneously empty out.

So no one else is having a similar issue? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? 🙂

--Clay

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Answer 3

nycruza

Level 2

341 points

Jul 17, 2007 7:18 AM in response to claydough

Remember to check the "server" also!

ajm

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Answer 4

claydough Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 17, 2007 9:26 AM in response to nycruza

I checked the server for any auto-folder cleaning, but I don't see anything. I am on Smartermail 4.1 hosted by CrystalTech (www.crystaltech.com). I changed the iPhone Trash mailbox to be called "iPhone Yuck" to see if the work Trash triggered anything. I will know by tomorrow.

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Answer 5

claydough Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 19, 2007 7:44 AM in response to claydough

The Latest...

I put a bunch of email in the iPhone Yuck folder (which is assigned as the iPhone Trash folder). I then didn't check my email on it for a full day. The mail was still in there via mail.app on my Mac. I then went into my iPhone and into the trash folder. It was empty. I then went back to mail.app to look at the iPhone Yuck folder which had mail in it 1 minute previous. EMPTY as well.

The iPhone is definitely causing this somehow.

Has anyone else had mail disappear from trash like this?

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Answer 6

claydough Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 23, 2007 10:37 AM in response to claydough

Another update...

I created another mail box and used it exclusively on the iPhone. It worked flawlessly. It was only after I opened mail.app and created the account and went to the trash box it erased the messages.

So, my conclusion is the iPhone must be tagging the email somehow and when mail.app opens that trash folder it gets rid of it for some reason. I can reproduce it, but if I went to the Genius Bar with this one, I think I would just get a lot of head scratching.

I just hope someone in Cupertino has seen this behavior.

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Answer 7

igrok-mac

Level 3

947 points

Jul 23, 2007 10:43 AM in response to claydough

I wonder if Mail.app on your computer is the culprit! By setting the iphone to use the iphone yuk folder as the trashcan, what it's really doing is leaving it in the inbox but "marked for deletion". When you look (on the iphone) at that folder, it polls the inbox for such messages and displays them.

But, when you check from Mail.app on the mac, and it sees the messages in the inbox tagged for deletion, it moves them to what it uses as trash. Have you looked in the trash folder that your mac uses to see if they're there?

As a workaround, why not leave the iphone to use the same trash as your mac does, but just leave the iphone yuk folder as a regular imap folder. It'll stay in sync with your mac, and you can always review it on the phone or the mac later, and move messages to the trash as you wish. Just a thought.

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Answer 8

nycruza

Level 2

341 points

Jul 23, 2007 1:31 PM in response to igrok-mac

IMAP keeps everything in Sync.
If you read on the MAC it will show a s read on the iPhone.
If you trash on the iPhone it will trash on the Mac.
So whatever you do READ, Trash/Delete, Move to Junk, etc. on one will be reflected in the other.

ajm

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Answer 9

claydough Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2007 7:02 AM in response to igrok-mac

Ya, I like your (igrok-mac) idea. I am just keeping a seperate iPhone Trash folder. It actually works out a little better for me to seperate what I have trashed on the mac and what I have trashed on the iphone. Thanks!

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Answer 10

MacPaint

Level 1

40 points

Oct 13, 2007 2:44 PM in response to claydough

Claydough,

you are not alone! I have the same problem...iPhone decides to automatically purge emails that are stored in the trash folder. It seems to ignore the IMAP account settings that are supposed to control this behavior.

This is a bug.

This thread is listed as solved, but creating a new "trash" folder is not a solution, it is a clunky workaround. If you can un-mark this as solved, please do so.

I hope people continue to find this thread and contribute to it if they are experiencing the same problem.

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Answer 11

domim

Level 1

25 points

Nov 4, 2007 2:38 AM in response to claydough

Same problem and it is not related to Mail.app in OS X. I sync to different IMAP accounts on different servers: Gmail, one on a CommuniGate Pro Linux server, a Exchange 2003 IMAP account and two Exchange 2007 accounts. All have the same problem (incl. Gmail) that the trash is always empty although I have set all accounts on the iPhone to never delete mail. Must be either a bug or an IMAP implementation feature. E.g. Exchange 2003 behaves differently than 2007 in some ways...

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Answer 12

MacPaint

Level 1

40 points

Nov 4, 2007 8:15 AM in response to domim

Agreed. This has nothing to do with Mail.app, as I don't use the application either.

I am surprised there has not been more discussion on this issue.

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Answer 13

domim

Level 1

25 points

Nov 18, 2007 3:56 AM in response to MacPaint

It seems to me that firmware 1.1.2 has fixed that problem. At least since upgrading my trashes have not been emptied. Can someone confirm that, too?

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Answer 14

Nov 22, 2007 2:02 AM in response to claydough

I have exactly this problem. My IMAP trash folder used to have 1000+ messages in it (i'm lazy and never empty it). Within 1 week of purchasing my iPhone this was down to just 50 or so messages. I assumed I'd mistakenly hit empty on my computer at some point.

Today I've checked and trash only has 30 messages in, the oldest is from 1 week ago (5 days after I started using my iPhone). So to me it looks like the iPhone is somehow killing off messages in trash older than a week.

I access the same account on my PC using outlook 2007, and also over a web interface. I have done so for some time with no problems. I have to conclude it's my iPhone doing the deleting then. I have been running 1.1.2 ever since I got the phone. It is set up to never remove deleted messages (although it looks suspiciously like it's running with the "remove after 1 week" setting).

Not a major drama - I have deleted these messages after all! But an interesting quirk.

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Answer 15

Nov 23, 2007 11:10 PM in response to claydough

I've got this issue too.. running iPhone with 1.1.2 firmware, Mac Mail 3.1 (that comes with OS X 10.5). All folders matched (i.e. iphone and mail using the same trash folder).

My messages are disappearing from my trash (i usually keep items in there for 90 days before doing a real delete).

Looks like from reading this thread that the phone is the suspect, i will set it to use a different trash folder and see if that helps.

This shouldn't be marked as solved though, thats a bad work around.

-g

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