Emails Automatically deleted from IMAP account

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Level 1

14 points

Emails Automatically deleted from IMAP account

I have three computers, an iMac running High Sierra, a laptop running Sierra and an older laptop running El Capitan. All three run Apple Mail, with two different email addresses. Two computers have IMAP accounts, but the older laptop has POP only.

Everything worked well until I upgraded to High Sierra on the iMac in October, after which emails began disappearing for one only of the two addresses, and on both the computers linked with IMAP accounts.

High Sierra may not be the culprit, but I always suspect a OS upgrade when unusual stuff happens soon after.

What happens is that I sift through emails every day, deleted most of them as does everyone, and keep the important ones in the inbox for later reference. Only have to do this on one of the computers with IMAP accounts as the other one just becomes a clone of that. The old computer with the POP accounts just sits there accumulating emails until I get around to deleting them as required. Then after a a week or 10 days or two weeks (it doesn't seem to be exactly the same every time) a large group of previously opened, but undeleted, emails just disappear from the two computers with IMAP accounts, but only from one of the two email addresses. Both address are from the same provider and are ........@bigpond.com

For example, back around Christmas, all emails from that one account dated between 12th and 18th December just disappeared from the IMAP account. Like 40 emails just vanished. Luckily I still had them on the old computer with the POP account. Then yesterday, every email from 19th to 28th December automatically disappeared.

I contacted Apple support for help but was advised it was nothing to do with the OS or application, but the emails must be being deleted by the Email Provider, Bigpond. So Apple washed their hands of it.

So this morning I contacted Bigpond and was told that with an IMAP account it is impossible for them to delete emails, and it has to happen from my end. And there is no automatic delete setting anywhere for an inbox. They were emphatic that there is absolutely no way that emails could be deleted from my inbox by them.

So I have nowhere to go, except for hoping someone in the Apple Community has an answer. Thanks.

OBS,iMac (27-inch Late 2009), macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), Apple Mail

Posted on Jan 8, 2018 5:48 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Brian Watts Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 8, 2018 7:46 PM in response to Brian Watts

I hope I've found the answer. I just wrote:

"I've looked and cannot find one, but is there any setting on an iPhone that deletes emails from the server?".

I did some Googling and found a story in the Telegraph called "How to stop an iPhone deleting emails". It says:

" ... assuming that you are using iPhone Mail, tap Settings on the Home screen then go to Mail, select your Account, then Advanced and under Incoming Settings tap Delete from server and chose Never."

I did this, and sure enough it was set on "delete after 7 days". I don't use the phone for emails much, only when I'm out and about without a computer, so maybe on the odd occasion when I do open the Mail app on the phone it triggers the deletion of a group of emails on the IMAP account that are older than 7 days. But why now when I'm sure this phone setting has been there unchanged for years. A mystery.

So now with the phone email deletions set to "never", we'll see if the problem is fixed. In about seven days from now.

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Answer 2

Jay-Ray

Level 4

3,732 points

Jan 8, 2018 5:55 PM in response to Brian Watts

Sounds like your POP computer might be removing them from the server upon downloading. Does they seem to disappear after messing with the POP computer? What happens if you just turn off the POP computer for a while? Does the issue still happen? POP is the crappiest way to have email set up and is literally used by no one in the current day because of issues just like this. POP accounts have a setting to either copy everything from the server and leave it in place on the server or to remove it from the server after copying everything. This can be **** on IMAP connected accounts as POP accounts clean out what they are looking at. This would make sense why you would still have them on the POP computer. Your ESP should be able to open a ticket to see what computer is initiating the deletions. Either way, isolate your issue by turning off computer (or at least not opening the email on it) for a period of time.

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Answer 3

Brian Watts Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 8, 2018 7:18 PM in response to Jay-Ray

Jay-Ray, thanks for your reply.

The computer running the POP account has this box NOT ticked:

"Remove copy from server after retrieving a message", so that's not the problem I thought.

Then I wondered, would another computer (a fourth one) running a POP account, but a computer on which we rarely open Apple Mail, be the problem. I checked, and that computer DID have the "Remove copy from server....." box ticked for removal after one week. This setting was made back in the pre-IMAP days when the server didn't want you clogging them up with old emails. But that computer is not routinely used for mail and currently has 2000 unread emails going back 8 months. But maybe it still could've be causing the problem if a setting on that old computer was still saved at the service provider. But a newer computer running the POP account, and looked at regularly, didn't have that box ticked. So what does the service provider believe if there are two computers instruction different things?

And if there is a computer requesting "remove copy from server after retrieving a message", does that message have to be retrieved from that computer, or can the message be retrieved from any computer and thereby trigger removal of that message from the server? If the answer is "yes", then that is strange because the "remove copy ..." box has been ticked on that computer since whenever, but I have been running IMAP email accounts for years and this latest problem has only be evident since I went to High Sierra in October.

Anyhow, the "remove copy ...." has now been unticked and so we'll see what happens.

I've looked and cannot find one, but is there any setting on an iPhone that deletes emails from the server?

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Answer 4

Jay-Ray

Level 4

3,732 points

Jan 8, 2018 11:51 PM in response to Brian Watts

Hey Brian,

That is almost certainly the issue, the iPhone, if the 7 day window corresponds with the current day when you were noticing the emails being deleted. That is the only logical explanation to all the details you provided. I give more insight on your first reply with the "remove from server" check box, this is a local rule only, so there is no way the ESP would have any dealings with that setting, so that is most likely not the issue since you rarely open mail on that 4th computer. It's good that you have reviewed that setting and found the one on your iPhone through all of this. Overall, I am sure your problem is solved so good luck to you in your future!

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