Mail keeps on reloading previously deleted and read items

I have the same problem with outlook on 2016 MacBook air. Deleted emails are duplicating themselves and moving into the inbox. The date received changes to the date it was resent and shows up as not being read.

Hi, I am online for my Mom who has a sudden serious problem on her 2012 Mac mini running OS 10.10.5. Today when she tried to reply to a message (and it's a real message not a possible Trojan Horse or anything), her Mail program started re-loading every single message that has ever been sent to her email (which is an @verizon.net account). She has never had anything like this happen in all her years computing and using the Mac Mail program with that email address.

There are a number of old mails she actually wants to keep but on the 5000+, she does NOT want them nor does she want to wait hours as they needlessly download. She is unable to send that mail due to the huge data flow, and we really don't want her to have to find the dozens and dozens of hours it would take to go through every single email she has ever gotten to determine which to throw away and which to keep.

Neither she nor I are very tech-savvy, so if anyone has a solution, please dumb it down as much as possible, thanks. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide us!!!!!

Is there an option to Delete emails from the server once they are Deleted in the mail program. Sorry I don't use Apple Mac mail because I find it lacking. But on all other email programs that I have ever used that option is there and works as it should.

A lot of this can be overcome with using IMAP servers, if they are available for your email accounts. Not all mail servers/providers allow IMAP.

Your computers might have corrupt iCloud prefs. Open iCloud in System Preferences and sign out completely. This will remove the account from mail and files from the computer. Sign back in and re enable Mail.

See if that helps clear things up.

You mentioned that you deleted the Envelope Index files and Message UID files (UID files are for POP accounts). An important step to that is to quit Mail first, delete the files, then restart Mail. Is that what you did?

Retry these steps:

Sign out of iCloud completely on that computer. Make sure the iCloud account disappears from the Accounts tab in Mail's preferences. If not, delete the account.

Quit Mail.

Go to the Home Library folder/Mail folder/ V2 folder and delete the AosIMAP folder for that account. Then go into the MailData folder and delete the Envelope Index Files.

Open Disk Utility and run permission repair. Once complete, open Mail. Then go to iCloud in system preferences and sign in. Enable Mail in the iCloud prefs and you account should be recreated in Mail.

See if that helps.

I'm having the exact same problem. Deleted mail or mail moved to folders for saving will pop back into the inbox frequently. This MAY have started around the time that the iCloud came into play. I can't recall. I've just been dealing with it (and becoming frustrated) for awhile.

In any case, interesting (and clearly thought out) solution above. My question is - will doing as you suggest erase existing indexing, causing tons of previously deleted or moved email to download again? Just wondering before I give that solution a try. Thanks!

For IMAP accounts, erasing the Envelope Index files will just reindex all messages stored on the computer and messages from IMAP servers that are stored temproarily on the computer for offline viewing. It doesn't redownload messages since it is IMAP. But as I said, it will rebuild the index file for every message stored on the computer.

For POP accounts, the UID files tells the computer what you have already downloaded from that POP account. Deleting the UID files will cause the computer to redownload every message left on the server.

Depending on you options set for handling messages on the server in a POP account will determine what messages you have on the server. If you have it set to never delete messages, then every message will be left on the server even if you delete or move them on the computer. You can check your mail settings under the advanced tab and see what is set for removing messages from the server. You can also click on the gearwheel at the bottom of the sidebar tab in Mail and get info on the account. You can see what messages are stored on the server. Those will redownload when you delete the UID files.

So, it depends on the type accounts you have. If you need more specifics, post the accounts you have (iCloud, Yahoo, etc) and type (POP or IMAP).

Note that on occasion for IMAP, deleting or moving a message may occasionally fail because of a communication error with the server or confilicts with other device settings and cause the message to reappear back in the inbox.