My deleted emails are erased from all my devices after one month despite selecting Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Mailbox Behaviours>Erase deleted messages: Never.
Any idea why, despite this selection, the deleted emails are being erased?
My archive mailbox remains empty in case anyone thinks they'd be transferred there. I'm using Mac OS11.6.2
iMac 27″, macOS 11.6
Two possibilities occur to me ...
1 - If you also connect to this mail account via the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad, etc. check the mail settings there; one or more of those devices may be set to empty the mail trash on a recurring basis.
2 - It appears to be a normal, default iCloud Mail behavior > https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/delete-email-mm6b1a7ab7/1.0/icloud/1.0 and also appears, unfortunately, perhaps unable to be overwritten by the setting in the macOS Mail client.
Two possibilities occur to me ...
1 - If you also connect to this mail account via the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad, etc. check the mail settings there; one or more of those devices may be set to empty the mail trash on a recurring basis.
2 - It appears to be a normal, default iCloud Mail behavior > https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/delete-email-mm6b1a7ab7/1.0/icloud/1.0 and also appears, unfortunately, perhaps unable to be overwritten by the setting in the macOS Mail client.
I would agree, if you are running into this problem, it may also be an artifact of the storage of your iCloud account.
I would definitely open a support case for your iCloud account directly with Apple through http://www.apple.com/support/
So at least this is documented that the problem has occurred. If you want to go into more detail, and are able to, you can sign up for http://developer.apple.com/ and submit a bug report on http://bugreporter.apple.com/ Note reports issued there are not possible to be conveyed on this support community. But at least they will get the attention they need if they are reproducible.
As per your link I've opened > System Preferences, then clicked Spotlight and opened the Privacy tab, which is completely blank. Furthermore the > System Preferences>Spotlight> 'Search Results' tab has every single category ticked including 'Mail & Messages'.
Is there anything that should be unchecked in the 'Search Results' tab or anything I should add in the privacy tab?
Many thanks 'a brody' and 'MartinR' for your replies.
I've spent the morning looking into it and I think the problem is due to the second of those two possibilities you mentioned Martin. Let me address them both:
1 - Before posting on here I had investigated this possibility and as far as I can tell there are no settings within iOS to alter the timescale with which deleted messages are emptied from the trash, which has led me to conclude that possibility two is the problem.
2 - I agree that iCloud does delete messages after 30 days so the option within Mac OS (Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Mailbox Behaviours>Erase deleted messages: Never.) is probably just a historic anomaly or perhaps it is there for users of other Mail providers who do not have the 30 day limit to have a certain element of control over their deleted messages.
The only workaround I can see is to get into the habit of using the Archive button when 'deleting' messages that you think you might have use for in the future and saving the 'Delete' button for those messages you know you're never going to have use for and are happy to be erased from the server.
I think having that option in Mac OS for iCloud accounts is a bit of a red herring IMO, perhaps the iCloud guys need to speak to the iOS and Mac OS guys?
Anyway, thank you once again. If anything contrary to the above turns up I'd be interested to hear about it.
All email providers have maximum settings for the length of time they keep emails on their server. I would think they do that to conserve space. You can go to the email provider’s website, log into your account and see if they allow a longer option. But,the best thing is to immediately move emails to a folder you created.
Your spotlight indexing may need to be rerun. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
I had same issue with Yahoo mail. Yahoo overrides my Apple mail settings and will delete mail as they feel is appropriate and you cannot override those settings.
Why do my deleted emails get removed from the server after one month despite me selecting never from mail preferences
