Deleted emails keep coming back, WHY?

Hello Laura,

It sounds like deleted emails keep coming back. We understand how important this is to you and we are here to help.

Are you permanently deleting emails? This article may be able to help: Delete emails in Mail on Mac

Can you also provide a few more details? Does this happen with multiple accounts of just one email account? Which Mac are you currently using? Also, how long before the emails come back?

Cheers!

Hello;

I have a google account and my Provider "Telus" switched to system where google maintains and operates the email for Telus. I have quite a few accounts. I have experienced your problem on a few occasions. The fix that worked for me was to sign on to my google account on the web. Under settings /Forwarding and Pop/Imap. Check the following ( I assume your accounts are iMap?) Enable Imap, Auto-Expunge off, the next two options are irrelevant to the problem.

I have found that these settings change by themselves once in a while and I have to go back and change them again. I have no idea why they change. The only account that does not have this issue in my icloud.com account.

This might work for you, hopefully.

Regards

Neil

Well, it didn't work for me... i.e., the suggested Settings modifications. I am a very happy owner of an 11yo Mac Air that works flawlessly. I can delete email messages on it and they stay deleted. Within seconds my iPad and iPhone are also updated, correctly showing the removed files. Now we come to the problem... Because you no longer support my Mac Air, I have purchased a brand new Mac Pro 13" (after urging by my son). I can delete gmail email messages on it and they disappear. However, they don't disappear from my iPad nor iPhone. Later, if I reboot my new Mac Pro, or even plug it in, the deleted email messages reappear! OK. I guess I will try the Safe Mode route but I don't see how that can help. If you can help me, please keep in mind that I am 71yo and don't speak IT.

Laura,

Thank you for those details. Which model Mac do you currently have? This article will help you identify it: Identify your MacBook model

This will help us determine if your Mac is on the latest macOS version.

Let's also boot into safe mode and see if you can replicate the issue: How to use safe mode on your Mac

Cheers!

laurafromdunwoody wrote:

I know I'm not on the latest Mac OS version. I'm on Catalina and not Big Sur. I stated in my previous reply to Brian that I have Macbook Pro 13", it's 2017 edition. I would prefer not to go into Safe Mode as I've had problems in the past requiring an Apple tech to work on my laptop to get it working again.

I think I might start with deleting my two email accounts and adding them back or use them on Outlook instead.

Safe Mode is very "Safe" -- it simply starts up your Mac without third party extensions and performs file system repairs and clears out some caches. Since caches are used by your Mac to "remember" certain items, and your Mac seems to be "remembering" something that you don't want, this might be worth trying. Booting into Safe Mode might take 5-10 minutes while it is cleaning house.

Deleting the email accounts and adding them back may also work. Make sure they are both IMAP (not POP) accounts or you could lose some emails in the process.

Well, the email messages I deleted on the Mac Pro haven't returned to the Mac Pro even after rebooting. The Settings changes seemed to have accomplished deleting the message on the Mac Pro (i.e., they have not returned, yet). However, those message still appear on my gmail account. They rightfully still appear on my iPad, iPhone and Mac Air. ... The problem seems to be that the Mac Pro is not deleting email message on my gmail account when I delete the messages on the Mac Pro. There must be some improper setting on the Mac Pro. I have tried to compare Mac Pro settings to my Mac Air settings but they seem to agree where the settings appear on both machines (not always the same).

Good to hear, glad it helped you.

Regards

Oops. I have a Macbook Pro 14" (not 13") , 2021. It has OS 12.0.1 but I am presently performing an update...