This is the way IMAP email accounts work If you don't like it you will continue pulling your hair out. Solution If you want to keep an email archive it

You can prevent this, assuming you want to read from phone and delete, but keep available on your computer, by changing your phone setup to POP. That downloads to your phone and you will need to delete each one when no longer needed, as deleting from computer won't achieve that, as the phone already has a copy.

There is no setting on the Iphone to change to pop.

I don't use iphone; I use android, but I found this link: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-change-your-email-account-from-imap-to-pop-on-iphone and this one: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2557586

I hope they help. You may have to contact your email provider to get the proper server name and setup information.

@david, I think @Steve wants to use the email on multi devices. So the only solution is to use IMAP accounts, POP accounts on multi devices users are not allowed ( @David will be bald if he changes accounts to POP). If one account on one of the devices will be POP then the emails will be downloaded locally and therefore no other device will be able to read them. So, if one email is very important it is advisable to be archived locally on the computer.

For @David

What to know about IMAP

IMAP is a flexible mail protocol because it stores all of your messages on a remote mail server, called an IMAP server, and when you access mail in your email client, it only downloads a copy of those messages.

Anything you do to the messages in your local mail client — reply, delete, forward, and so on — is synchronized with the copy on the IMAP server. This allows you to connect to your email account from multiple devices and allows your messages to always stay in sync.

So, @David do not mess with POP accounts ==> you'll lose your hair!!!!.

@Lampros there is no easy answer and Steve must decide that. I sent two URLs that show how to convert iphone account to POP, but since it shows a full URL an administrator must approve my post. It should show up soon, or Steve can do a web search for how to convert iphone to POP.

Thanks to you all. I was able to change to POP but still no luck. I downloaded the Google Gmail app on my phone but same thing. This never happened on Outlook Express. There was an option to not delete but Express is gone now. I give up. Thanks!!!

I just retired a few years ago. Software Engineer my whole life. Mostly embedded work. Old school I guess. I was on the original Project X also called Athena at MIT. That was 100's of years ago. Much easier back then "You've got mail"

Thanks guys, Steve

Thanks for all your quick help. I will get into the habit of moving any emails in my Inbox to another local folder before I delete off my Iphone.

Thanks again, Steve

Thanks, Steve. I'm pleased that all is well. Will you please mark this resolved now? Otherwise, it remains on our open issue list. Much appreciated.

On your iPhone, assuming you have set up a POP account. go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts. Tap on your email account. Scroll to the bottom and tap ‘Advanced.’ Tap ‘Delete from server’ and choose ‘Never.’

Not sure I closed it. I don't know how

I think there is a link on the email you receive to mark it closed.

One of the emails you received regarding this question will have the correct answer that help you fix the problem. Locate that email and click on the green button which says 'Mark it as solved'.

It would seem you have already done this, although you did not mark the correct comment which actually contained the solution.

Ya I give up. Seems like they've made it as hard as possible and confusing. I did click on it from the email. It brings up a new Firefox window, then to a white screen and does absolutely nothing for over 24 hours before I closed it.

Reminds me of Microsoft Visual C/C++. 100 topics on how to do something but only 1 really works but we'll just keep adding more ways that really don't work.