CANNOT Delete Messages from AOL Account

I have encountered this issue as well and have found no way to resolve it either. I would appreciate any info anyone might have on this topic.

thanks

What are your incoming and outgoing server settings? Are you using SSL?

Thanks for your interest in this problem, I let the mail program set up the mail box with AOL so as far as server settings I honestly do not know how to retrieve that information, I did look under advanced and noticed I have the SSL box checked.

Any instruction would be of great help.

RtzJ9 wrote:
I let the mail program set up the mail box with AOL so as far as server settings

What do you mean by this?

When you setup mail initially, did you enter settings like imap.aol.com, smtp.aol.com, etc.?

I have had this same problem with my own IMAP mail server.

The problem is that Mail.app is using a folder for "trash" that may not exist on the server (or you may need to subscribe to it).

On my setup, there is a disclosure triangle next to the Inbox that, when clicked, exposes all of the other folders for that IMAP account.

I browsed that list and found one named "Trash." I clicked on that folder and changed that folder to the trash folder by clicking:

Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For > Trash

Everything now works as expected.

Yes it is very annoying but Metajon's answer at the end of the dscussion solves the problem. Simply click on the Trash folder of the 'problem' account go to Mailbox > Use this Mailbox for … > Trash.

Problem solved!

Thanks once again for great advice

Oh if it were only that easy . . .

when I follow the instructions above I get this error message

<< Mail was unable to open this mailbox on the server “imap.aol.com”.

The server error encountered was: SELECT Failed: Can't open mailbox Deleted Messages: no such mailbox >>

Please let me know what I can do tto resolve this issue.

I just had this problem too...here is what fixed it.

This is from another page, not my original discovery:

"That's port 587 if you choose not to use SSL secure transactions, which would be fine for the typical user. If you want to use SSL, you need port 465."

I had the "use SSL" box checked using port 587. I changed it to 465 and now all is well.

I had not made any changes when this started to happen...wonder what triggered it?

Neither of these options worked for me

happy to screen shot, pdf and email all of my settings to you for Leopard Mail. (Well, not my password and usernames 😉

Hit me up michaelelliott@mac.com

Wondering if you've tried Apple's suggestion? (I don't have AOL so can't try it but have an AOL friend who soon will be moving to Leopard)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306881

Mac OS X 10.5, Mail: Unable to delete messages in AOL-based mail account
Issue or symptom

You may not be able to delete an America Online (AOL) account-based message in Mail.
Products affected

* Mail
* Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
* AOL email account

Solution

1. In Mail, from the Mail menu choose Preferences.
2. Click the Accounts icon.
3. Select your AOL account on the left side if you have more than one account in the list.
4. Click the Mailbox Behaviors pane.
5. In the Trash section, deselect (uncheck) "Store deleted messages on the server".

I followed this suggestion as well and nothing changed. When I highlight the AOL trash can I get this message:

<< Unable to open “AOL”
Mail was unable to open this mailbox on the server “imap.aol.com”.
The server error encountered was: SELECT Failed: Can't open mailbox Deleted Messages: no such mailbox >>

Any further thoughts?

OK now I have tried everything everyone has suggested and nothing worked.For no real reason that I can figure, my AOL started working correctly and now allows me to throw away mail. I'm going to take a leap and say the issue was on the AOL side and was resolved.

Let me say thank you again to all who tried to resolve this with me.