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Level 4

3,284 points

GMail "Delete" button doesn't

In Apple Mail, I thought I was deleting emails but now I go to the GMail webmail and discover all those deleted files are really in the "All Mail" folder. What a bummer, I will have to sort through months of emails. how do I make Apple mail ACTUALLY delete the mails?

2.4 MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 10:17 PM

Best reply

babowa

Level 9

78,109 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 10:31 PM

Do you have this set up as an IMAP or POP account?

If it is IMAP, all emails remain on the server (Gmail) and you will have to delete them there and check if there are settings you can choose (I don't have an IMAP account, so I don't know if/what the settings would be).

If it is POP, you can set up when emails should get deleted by going to Preferences - Accounts - Advanced. However, some servers still keep emails for a certain amount of time and you will need to check the Gmail settings (in my case, Comcast's default setting is 30 days, but that can be changed).

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17 replies

Doc_

Level 1

14 points

Aug 29, 2012 12:36 PM in response to Gnarlodious

The best solution I've found so far is to move unwanted messages to "[GMail]/Trash".

AFAIK, the message will end up in that account's Trash folder and be deleted after 30 days.

I'd prefer if I could have a button (like "delete"!) that would just move these unwanted messages to "[GMail]/Trash". From what I understand, delete just removes labels from a given message. Unlabled messages appear only in "All Mail". Deleting a message from "Inbox" just removes the label!

So, in Apple Mail (OS X) you can apply multiple labels by copying a message from your inbox to several folders - then when you "delete" the message the "Inbox" label is removed, though the message remains under the various labels to which you've copied the message. Similarly, you can then find your message under which ever folders (labels) you've copied it to; when you hit delete you're only removing the message from that folder (ie: removing that particular label.) After you've removed the message from all folders, it will remain in "All Mail".

However, if you copy a message to multiple folders and remove it from the inbox, you can then find the message in any folder you copied it to and move it to "[GMail]/Trash" - this will delete the message from all folders!

The key to understanding all this is to abandon the notion of folders for that of "labels". Consider the aformentioned move action - you've copied a message to multiple folders, but moving anyone of those "copies" to "[GMail]/Trash" will trash all copies! That's because there's only ever one copy of the message that's been assigned zero or more labels.

"Delete" deletes labels, not messages. "All mail" contains all messages, including unlabeled messages.

Note that on the iPhone it seems there is no option to copy a message - you can only move messages to a single folder - that is, apply a single label.

Doc_

Level 1

14 points

Sep 1, 2012 2:46 PM in response to Doc_

Pro tip: You can drag and drop [GMail]/Trash to the "Favourites Bar", then drag and drop emails there to move them to your GMail trash. It's much easier than having to navigate to your [GMail]/Trash folder via context menu or mailbox list.

GMail "Delete" button doesn't