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Apple Mail Not Removing Junk Mail

I have mail preferences set to delete Junk mail "after one day". However Junk mail remains until I manually delete it, which then causes my mail app to unexpectedly quit.

What am I doing wrong? Or am I missing something?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Dec 1, 2020 7:37 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 2, 2020 10:18 AM

Yes, vey god & clear, thank you.


Time to try this...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


Open Terminal and run each of these...


sudo mdutil -E /


This basically asks for temporary super user status, which is why Terminal may ask you for your password (it may not if you’ve used a sudo command recently or are already logged in as a super user or root. The command asks the unix tool mdutil to reindex the spotlight database for everything on the computer, including external drives, mounted disk images, etc. To re-index only for a specific drive, use the /Volumes path. For example, for an external drive named “MiniMe,” the command would look like this:


sudo mdutil -i on /


Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 2, 2020 10:18 AM in response to elkriverken

Yes, vey god & clear, thank you.


Time to try this...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


Open Terminal and run each of these...


sudo mdutil -E /


This basically asks for temporary super user status, which is why Terminal may ask you for your password (it may not if you’ve used a sudo command recently or are already logged in as a super user or root. The command asks the unix tool mdutil to reindex the spotlight database for everything on the computer, including external drives, mounted disk images, etc. To re-index only for a specific drive, use the /Volumes path. For example, for an external drive named “MiniMe,” the command would look like this:


sudo mdutil -i on /


Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.

Dec 1, 2020 11:15 AM in response to BDAqua

The Trash Mailbox ends the path. i.e.

Mail>Preferences>Accounts>iCloudIMAP>Mailbox Behaviors>Trash Mailbox>Trash. Then "Erase Deleted Messages After One Week".


Regarding my Junk Mailbox:

Mail>Preferences>Accounts>iCloudIMAP>Mailbox Behaviors>Junk Mailbox>Junk. Then "Erase Junk Messages After One Day:.


I hope this is what you wanted. Thank you.

Apple Mail Not Removing Junk Mail

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