Turning off Archive on a MacBook Air 2025 M4

Mail > Mail menu > Settings > Accounts > your Gmail account(s), set the Archive mailbox to Trash, make sure your Trash mailbox is Trash, and if you like set a time period after which messages in Trash are deleted.

Google's implementation of IMAP is horribly non-standard.

The "Archive" doesn't actually exist. What Apple Mail presents to you as the "Archive" is actually the "All Mail" folder in Gmail.

FYI: There are no 'folders' in gmail. There are only tags applied to emails that make them appear to be in folders.

You're going to have to change the settings in gmail through the web interface to alter how it behaves and looks.

KiltedTim reminded me of one thing you can do. In Gmail settings (on the web portal, not in Mail), Labels tab, disable the “Show in IMAP” checkbox next to All Mail.

That will only stop you from seeing it in Mail (or any other IMAP client). It won’t stop the evil company from storing all the messages you wanted deleted. That setting is somewhere else. I think Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

What options do you have there, and under Bin mailbox? Is there not a bin/trash option at all? If not, you may need to alter the settings on the Gmail side (in a browser), or check out the Gmail help center.

https://support.google.com/mail/?hl=en#topic=7065107

Sounds like you are using Gmail. It defaults to saving everything including stuff you delete. How do you expect them to monetize you if they don’t have all the data.

You must tell Gmail to not archive your deleted messages.