Deleted emails not going to Trash

My deleted MAIL messages no longer appear in the Trash mailbox. I have double-checked every point, but cannot get a deleted message to appear in my Trash folder! I am using Sequia 15.3

iMac 24″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Feb 5, 2025 7:12 AM

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6 replies

Feb 12, 2025 12:01 PM in response to Sezen13

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.  


There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   


Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.


There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  


Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they provide false security from a privacy standpoint.  Read these two articles: Public VPN's are anything but private and Security Risks: The Dangers of Using Free VPNs (eccu.edu)


That being said, you've got a lot of crapware installed: Microsoft Defender, Intego, AdBlock and NordVP.


You're also very, very low on free disk space:

 

Size: 245.11 GB

Free: 17.79 GB


It's recommended that one have. minimum of 80-90 GB of free space. To achieve that you may have to get a portable SSD that's easy to carry along with your laptop. One such drive to consider is the OWC Envoy Pro MINI:



It's available in sizes from 250 GB to 2 TB.


Now back to the crapware. Uninstall Microsoft Defender Intego and NordVPN according to the developer's instructions.


You can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name.  For XXXX software you'd do the following search(es): 


1 - Name contains intergo

2 - Name contains nordvpn

3 - Name contains microsoft defender

4 - Name contains adblock


Note: if you need an ad-blocker for Safari I suggest Ghostery which just adds an extension for Safari instead of an app with many supporting files. It's more efficient and it's free.


Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.


FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  


If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.


Note:  if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode.  This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.



Feb 7, 2025 11:43 AM in response to OldToad

Of course. I have had them for all the years I had Mac's. However, I did make some changes recently because my mail was not going into the Inbox, but always going to All Mail, along with everything I wrote. It was a hassle to constantly be deleting or changing locations for my mail.


So, I made a few changes to my settings, and now the emails go to the inbox again. I cannot see how that could have prevented the deleted messages from disappearing, even when I have the settings for them to go to Trash!

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Deleted emails not going to Trash

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