I have checked Preferences and the appropriate box is ticked for moving deleted messages into the trash in both of my email accounts. Help please!
Mac mini 1.42, Mac OS X (10.4.7)
What does happen when you try to delete a message?
Error message: The destination mailbox “Trash — helen.eh” does not allow messages to be moved to it. Same error message for my other account.
Look in Library/Mail folder in your Home folder. Locate the folder for one of the accounts (might be POP-helen... something) and Get Info. Open the folder and select the Deleted folder and Get Info. In each case, report what shows under Sharing and Permissions.
Are you having any other filing problems? Have you adequate free disk space?
First of all, I should mention my secondary email account IS putting deleted messages in the trash. Only my primary account isn 't. I opened MAIL's info... under Sharing and Permissions it simply says I have custom access.
system - read and write
wheel - read only
everyone - read only
There is no mention of my 2 email accounts in Mail Info.
Did you try this?
Look in Library/Mail folder in your Home folder. Locate the folder for one of the accounts (might be POP-helen... something) and Get Info. Open the folder and select the Deleted folder and Get Info. In each case, report what shows under Sharing and Permissions.
Are you having any other filing problems? Have you adequate free disk space?
Ok, I very carefully followed your insructions. In the Deleted Folder under sharing and Permissions, it says:
Helen (Me) Read and Write
Everyone Read only
THAT IS ALL IT SAYS.
Well that seems OK.
In Mail, select the Trash mailbox for that account and use menu Mailbox/Rebuild and see if that helps.
What sort of mail account is it?
I think we may be getting somewhere! REBUILD is greyed out in my primary email account, but I can select it in my secondary email account. That probably tells you something. My accounts are POP.
Quit Mail.
Make a copy of the Library/Mail folder.
In the Library/Mail folder (not the copy) delete any files called Envelope Index (probably only one)
Turn off your internet connection
Start Mail. It might take quite some time to restart, as it has to rebuild all mailboxes.
Check.
If something goes wrong, Quit Mail, delete the Library/Mail folder and put the copy in its place, renaming it if necessary.
Remember to turn on your internet connection again 😉
Rebuilt is complete, nothing went wrong, but unfortunately I am still not able to delete messages. Should I delete the copy of the Library/Mail folder now?
One thing I have just noticed. Under Trash there is a folder called ON MY MAC. There's nothing in it but beneath it are the names of my 2 email accounts.
Under INBOX there is no folder called ON MY MAC. Only my 2 email account folders.
I don't suppose this any relevance?
PROBLEM SOLVED! I tried deleting the folder named helen.eh in my Trash. I then created a new folder with the same name, and tried deleting some unwanted emails. It worked.
Thank you very, very much for all your wonderful help.
Mac Mail is suddenly refusing to place deleted messages in the trash
