Unable to erase mail

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Level 1

130 points

Unable to erase mail

I am just migrating to Mail and set up a single IMAP account for testing.

I haven't been able to erase deleted email.

Deleting email from the inbox moves it to trash as expected. Mail deleted through the web interface also appears in the trash folder in mail.

The preferences are set to not erase because I want to erase manually.

If I right click on the trash folder in Mail and select "Erase Deleted Items ..." nothing happens.

I've also tried going from the Mailbox menu and "Erase Deleted Items", then chosen the mailbox and also tried "In All Accounts ..."

To be sure that the preferences were not affecting it I tried changing the preference (although I find it hard to believe automatic erase settings would be needed to let you manually erase).

After changing the setting to permanently erase after a month, I tried to erase manually. There was no change. So I changed the setting to permanently erase on quitting Mail, saved the setting and quit Mail. When I opened Mail again, the Trash contained the same mails.

I permanently deleted the mails through the web client and went back to Mail. The mails had gone so the problem is only when trying to do this in Mail.

I'm using Mail 9.3 on OS X 10.11.6.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix the problem or can tell me what I am doing wrong?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Feb 10, 2017 6:56 PM

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Answer 1

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gakushaburu Author

Level 1

130 points

Apr 11, 2017 8:42 PM in response to gakushaburu

Whether the problem with Mail is a defect or simply the settings don't allow enough flexibility to work properly with yahoo.co.jp is not clear but in either case it's not up to the job I need it to do.

In the time I've spent trying to get to the bottom of this a new version of Thunderbird which officially supports El Capitan has been released so I have installed that and am using it without any problems.

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Answer 2

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Feb 12, 2017 5:55 AM in response to gakushaburu

Greetings, gakushaburu.
It appears that you're unable to delete emails you've moved to the Trash through the Mail application on your iMac. I'll be glad to help you with this.
Force an app to close on your Mac -- Force quit the Mail app if it's open, then open it again while holding the shift key. See if this has resolved the issue.
Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac -- Test how it responds in safe mode. If there are no issues, reboot normally and test again in your own user account.

You can use safe mode to help resolve issues that might keep your Mac from completely starting up.

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac -- If the issue is also happening in safe mode, use this article to test another user account. This will demonstrate if the issue is isolated to your account, or if it's system wide. You'll need to set up your email account in this new profile to test. If the issue is also happening in this profile, what is the email service provider (everything to the right of the "@" symbol)?

Let me know how that goes and thanks for using Apple Support Communities!

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Answer 3

gakushaburu Author

Level 1

130 points

Feb 15, 2017 5:30 AM in response to Leanne_68

Thanks for the reply

Starr.C wrote:

Force quit the Mail app if it's open, then open it again while holding the shift key.

This had no affect on the problem

Starr.C wrote:

Test how it responds in safe mode.

Neither did this.

Starr.C wrote:

test another user account.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do this test yet. I created another account specifically for testing but couldn't access my mail at all. Mail has also stopped working on my iPhone but I can still access it through the web client so assume there must be a problem with map connection at the moment. I'll try again tomorrow.

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Answer 4

gakushaburu Author

Level 1

130 points

Feb 15, 2017 5:43 AM in response to Eric Root

Eric Root wrote:

Check Mail/Preferences/Accounts/Mailbox Behaviors to make sure Store deleted messages on server isn't checked.

Thanks Eric ... but surely not. The whole point of an imap service is to keep the server and client in sync with each other so why should it matter where deleted messages are stored.

But I didn't want to write that without testing so I removed the check.

The result was that another "Trash" folder appearing in Mail (this one in the mailbox section rather than in the account folders). In the web client a new "Deleted Messages" folder appeared. If I delete messages in the web client or using Mail on iOS, the deleted messages go into the original Trash folder and I can purge them using either the "empty trash" function in the web client, or delete all from within the Trash folder on my iPhone. These are not removed if I try to use erase in Mail on the Mac.

If I delete a mail in Mail on the Mac it goes into the new "Trash" folder (the one that appears as Deleted Messages elsewhere). These can then be erased. However, they appear in the Deleted Messages folder in Mail on my iPhone and in the web client and act like non-deleted mail. That's to say I have to delete them to move them into the 'real' trash folder before purging.

Using this setup I'd be forced to only delete mail in one place which isn't what I was expecting but also defeats the point of imap.

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Answer 5

gakushaburu Author

Level 1

130 points

Feb 15, 2017 1:45 PM in response to gakushaburu

I tested the account with another user this morning.

All the preferences are the same as on the original user (i.e. default settings) and the behaviour is the same.

As mentioned in my last post, I do not have this problem with Mail on iOS, only Mac.

The mail provider is yahoo.co.jp but I doubt that is relevant.

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Feb 12, 2017 4:58 PM in response to gakushaburu

Check Mail/Preferences/Accounts/Mailbox Behaviors to make sure Store deleted messages on server isn't checked.

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