Unable to delete selected emails
I use TBird/GMail on two Windows 11 machines - a desktop and a laptop. In my All Mail folder there many emails promoting misc items, in fact over 1000 that I do not want. I have set server settings to delete immediately but no matter how I try the deleted emails reappear. They are not in the Bin or Trash. I get the same results using either the laptop or the desktop. Any ideas?
All Replies (12)
They are probably in the All Mail trash folder. Go to https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all to check.
No. All the emails I want to delete are in the All Mail folder. I delete them from there and they reappear moments later. They are not in trash or bin.
b.chapman093 said
No. All the emails I want to delete are in the All Mail folder. I delete them from there and they reappear moments later. They are not in trash or bin.
On TB, try R. click Trash > Empty Trash, then Compact.
Sorry, no effect. Selected several emails in all mail, deleted, went to trash, emptied, compacted. Emails reappear in all mail. Same effect on both laptop and desktop. Both are up to date. I have over 1000 to get rid of.
b.chapman093 said
Sorry, no effect. Selected several emails in all mail, deleted, went to trash, emptied, compacted. Emails reappear in all mail. Same effect on both laptop and desktop. Both are up to date. I have over 1000 to get rid of.
Did you try this?
b.chapman093 said
Sorry, don't understand.
Hmm, link should have been https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#trash. You have to select one or more messages for 'Delete forever' to appear.
Sorry Ed, this is going round in circles. I need to retain Gmail but can you suggest a different client?
b.chapman093 said
No. All the emails I want to delete are in the All Mail folder. I delete them from there and they reappear moments later. They are not in trash or bin.
What we have here is circular logic. Google holds but one copy of email. In the all mail folder. These have various labels attached to them like inbox and trash. Those search labels are used by Google to populate your folders on the fly. They do not exist in gmail, only in IMAP.
You select the email in the all mail folder and then delete. That puts the mail in the Trash folder. In Googles terms that means a copy in the all mail folder with a trash label.
Shift delete bypasses the move to trash folder step and will stop the stuff you remove from all mail reappearing as your IMAP commands get interpreted by Google into Gmail speak. You will note Google recommends you simply mark deleted mail as such and not move it. I do not suggest that. But I do suggest the judicious use to shift delete, but there is no undo attached, so be careful.
Sorted (mostly) I logged into "gmail" on the web and I could see all my emails. I identified those to be deleted - deleted forever and they were gone from my tbird account. There were some that the web could not see but I can live with that. Thank you and Ed for your suggestions.
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