Delete Emails from my other devices when deleted from iMac

I'd like to have the deleted emails from my iMac also delete from my iPhone and iPad. Are there settings that will help me do that?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 10, 2022 8:51 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 11, 2022 1:26 PM

Hello jfdowshen,


There aren't any settings on the devices that would control this behavior, it would all come down to the type of email account you're using.


There's two main types of email protocols that email providers use, POP and IMAP.


If your mail provider is using POP, this would mean when you check for new email the messages are downloaded directly to your device. After being downloaded to the device, there is no "live" connection to the mail server, so if you delete the message it is only going to get deleted from that one device.


If your mail provider is using IMAP, this protocol always has a "live" connection with the mail server. Any changes you make to a message that uses IMAP will be synced directly to the mail server, and then to any devices that are using the mail account. For example, if you have an IMAP email account set up on an iPhone, iPad and Mac, and you delete an email on the iPhone, it will sync that action directly to the mail server and delete the message from there, which will in turn sync with the iPad and Mac to delete that message from those devices as well.


You'd want to confirm if your email provider uses the IMAP protocol, and if so, set up the email account on the devices and configure it as an IMAP account, not POP.


Cheers!

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 11, 2022 1:26 PM in response to jfdowshen

Hello jfdowshen,


There aren't any settings on the devices that would control this behavior, it would all come down to the type of email account you're using.


There's two main types of email protocols that email providers use, POP and IMAP.


If your mail provider is using POP, this would mean when you check for new email the messages are downloaded directly to your device. After being downloaded to the device, there is no "live" connection to the mail server, so if you delete the message it is only going to get deleted from that one device.


If your mail provider is using IMAP, this protocol always has a "live" connection with the mail server. Any changes you make to a message that uses IMAP will be synced directly to the mail server, and then to any devices that are using the mail account. For example, if you have an IMAP email account set up on an iPhone, iPad and Mac, and you delete an email on the iPhone, it will sync that action directly to the mail server and delete the message from there, which will in turn sync with the iPad and Mac to delete that message from those devices as well.


You'd want to confirm if your email provider uses the IMAP protocol, and if so, set up the email account on the devices and configure it as an IMAP account, not POP.


Cheers!

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Delete Emails from my other devices when deleted from iMac

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