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How do I get Mail to Delete a message without giving me an error

I'm getting a message from Mail telling me I cannot delete a message from my Inbox because it already exists in the Trash mailbox. If I Erase everything in my Trash mailbox it will delete the message.

Mail seems to be treating messages as if they are files and you can't have two with the same name in the same folder.

This problem just started a few days ago.

If I do away with the Trash mailbox (In Preferances) by having trash deleted instead of having it sent to the Trash mailbox. The problem goes away, but so does my ability to retrieve a mistakenly deleted message.

Does anyone have any idea what's causing this or how I can fix it?. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Ron

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Security downloaded itself and inst

Posted on Mar 13, 2012 6:01 PM

Reply
11 replies

Mar 13, 2012 6:54 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi

I've tried selecting the message and using the Delete button on the menu bar and i've tried right clicking and select delete from the drop down menu.

I am using POP and I believe i'm set for delete from server after 5 days just in case I want the message on another device. Neither of those have changed since before this problem appeared. The only thing I know of that's happened is an update from Apple about the time this problem popped up. I've only run into one other user so far with this same problem.

I do get a lot of messages from the same people in a Amateur radio group with message headers that are the same or very close to the same. That may account for why I've noticed the problem. Again that is nothing new. I've been getting these same messages f4rom this same radio group for quite a while now.


Ron

Mar 13, 2012 7:03 PM in response to HMBGENO

Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move this folder & file to the Desktop.


Move this Folder to the Desktop...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/


Move this file to the Desktop...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index


Reboot.


If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup


Note, in 10.5 & up /Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/ may or may not exist.

Mar 14, 2012 2:25 PM in response to HMBGENO

Hi All

Well we seem to have found the problem. By we I mean my son, who's been an Apple user a lot longer than I have.

The following is what he did and it seems to have fixed my problem.


Open finder goto Library / Mail


Open the folder for the account (ie: POP-user@isp.com)


If a Folder called "Deleted Items" exists, drag it to trash.


Re-open Mac Mail and it will automatically re-create the "Deleted Items.mbox" file required to trash messages.



Some how there was a Folder called "Deleted Items" and there should have been a File called "Deleted Item"

I don't think I precipitated this circumstance and if so. I couldn't tell you how. I don't tend to play around at that level with a computer that is working fine.

Maybe the above fix will help others with a simalar problem.


Thanks again. The help is really appreciated.


Ron

Jul 14, 2012 10:10 AM in response to HMBGENO

Whew! Ron, thank you so much for posting what worked. The same thing happened today to my Mac and while erasing deleted mail didn't help, deleting the trash files in Library>Mail did work. Note to anyone else with this problem: I have three email addresses, so I had to navigate inside the folders for each of the emails addresses and delete the trash files for each address.


Thanks to the people who run this forum too, so we can quickly find answers and end our exasperation with computer glitches.


Why did this suddenly happen anyway?

Feb 4, 2013 5:25 AM in response to HMBGENO

I had this same problem that started just a day ago. No apparent reason that I can think of. No updates took place, no new mail accounts, no changes to settings. I followed your advice, and it worked perfectly! Thank you so much! There are many other threads on this topic, but none of the advice I could find there worked. This was quick, easy and solved my problem - thank you again! You made my day. 😀

Feb 24, 2013 8:13 PM in response to BDAqua

I have Mail on MountainLion and I have about 8000 message and I cannot delete any.

I downloaded an application to make the library and other invisibile files visibles

in MountainLion and I cannot find my 'user' name on the left as I could in

SnowLeopard. I have SnowLeopard on the other partitioned side of my 17"

MacBook Pro and SnowLeopard on the 15" MacBook Pro. Both SL's are working

OK.


But a lot of things seem to be acting up on Mountain Lion.


Do I need to detele Mail and reinstall .... ? Thanks ~

How do I get Mail to Delete a message without giving me an error

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