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fiat

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2013
59
19
Just recently, after deleting all junk mails in the "All Junk" mailbox, very soon (< 1 min) they all came back as "read" emails! So the "ALL Junk" mailbox kept piling up with those "deleted" junk like ghosts. This never happened before Sonoma 14.4 (my current system: Mac mini M2 Pro Sonoma 14.5). Contacted Apple Tech Support with no solution. Did anyone encounter this problem too? Hope and appreciate someone giving a helping hand to resolve this.
 

gilby101

macrumors 68030
Mar 17, 2010
2,635
1,407
Tasmania
What mail provider(s)?

Probably not relevant to your problem, but I don't have an "All Junk" mailbox. I only have Junk mailboxes for each mail provider.
 

fiat

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2013
59
19
I only have one provider (att-yahoo) with many accounts. Probably that's why the "All Junk" mailbox.
 

jb310

macrumors 6502
Aug 24, 2017
264
595
Have you tried logging in to Att-Yahoo Mail using a browser to see if this happens on there too? I do have a feeling that the issue is tied more to your email provider rather than to just Apple Mail. 🤔

(I use Apple Mail with a Gmail account and a free Outlook.com account and I've never had issues.)
 
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Del Varner

macrumors newbie
Jul 27, 2021
3
1
Just recently, after deleting all junk mails in the "All Junk" mailbox, very soon (< 1 min) they all came back as "read" emails! So the "ALL Junk" mailbox kept piling up with those "deleted" junk like ghosts. This never happened before Sonoma 14.4 (my current system: Mac mini M2 Pro Sonoma 14.5). Contacted Apple Tech Support with no solution. Did anyone encounter this problem too? Hope and appreciate someone giving a helping hand to resolve this.
If you use gmail, the delete does not delete the email on the gmail server. You have to go to the server and delete it there. When you do it will disappear from your mail app.
 
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fiat

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2013
59
19
Have you tried logging in to Att-Yahoo Mail using a browser to see if this happens on there too? I do have a feeling that the issue is tied more to your email provider rather than to just Apple Mail. 🤔

(I use Apple Mail with a Gmail account and a free Outlook.com account and I've never had issues.)
Thanks for reminding. I looked into my Junk mailbox again and found only two accounts (addresses) of a dozen keep piling up junk emails. So I log into those accounts online and see the junk still in the Spam folder. I deleted them all and back to the Mail client to see all the junk disappear! So far it's clean now. But just wonder how far it can stay clean and why it didn't happen to other accounts?
 

fiat

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2013
59
19
If you use gmail, the delete does not delete the email on the gmail server. You have to go to the server and delete it there. When you do it will disappear from your mail app.
Thanks. Although I don't use Gmail, the same thing might happen to other servers as I resolved the issue the same way for now.
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
5,918
4,514
Mail > Mailboxes > Erase Junk Mail is how I flush my Spam/Junk folders. Works every time.

But as others have pointed out, could be a setting thing for the account on the provider's side. For example (yes, I know, not using Gmail), Gmail has an option to keep the email around until every label (aka folder) has been removed. Can see where something like that keeps dumping the mail back to Junk/Spam.

gmail.png
 
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fiat

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2013
59
19
Mail > Mailboxes > Erase Junk Mail is how I flush my Spam/Junk folders...
That's the same result as when I first briefly scan (make sure they are junk) over all junk mail and select them all to be deleted. But if the provider's server gets locked up and doesn't delete them, the client's junk will keep coming back... until you log into the account on the server and delete them...
 

gilby101

macrumors 68030
Mar 17, 2010
2,635
1,407
Tasmania
That's the same result as when I first briefly scan (make sure they are junk) over all junk mail and select them all to be deleted. But if the provider's server gets locked up and doesn't delete them, the client's junk will keep coming back... until you log into the account on the server and delete them...
With gmail, I disabled IMAP for All Mail. This is in Web Gmail, Settings, Labels. That fixed some confusing issues for me when moving and/or deleting messages.. Similar may apply to other providers.
 

fiat

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2013
59
19
Bummer! After a few days of clear, the junk suddenly returned and I had to log into Yahoo mail server again to dump all the junk there! While there it's been disclosed that "Spam mail is set to auto-deleted after 30 days... and the time limit can not be changed." This is one of the horrible things about att-yahoo service... :mad:
 
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