iPhone iOS7 Mail Deletion by Age or Count

[sabretel]

Is there a way to easily have Mail delete messages from the iPhone automatically? Ideally after so many days old or so many messages have accumulated.

I have several mail accounts and not all of them are capable of synchronizing with the server side which is where most of my mail management rules are held. Rather than manually manage the iPhone I would prefer that it simply work on a stack push down basis with mail automatically falling off the bottom of the list.

Thanks

 

[Armen]

Is there a way to easily have Mail delete messages from the iPhone automatically? Ideally after so many days old or so many messages have accumulated.

I have several mail accounts and not all of them are capable of synchronizing with the server side which is where most of my mail management rules are held. Rather than manually manage the iPhone I would prefer that it simply work on a stack push down basis with mail automatically falling off the bottom of the list.

Thanks

Not that I am aware of and I don't think Apple would want the headache that could arise from this.

 

[sedgeman]

Why don't you sync to only 1 or 3 days so you only see emails from the last few days?

 

[Armen]

Why don't you sync to only 1 or 3 days so you only see emails from the last few days?

Now this a better idea ^^^

Personally, I only sync 1 months worth of mail with our work exchange server.

 

[sabretel]

Ok that answers my question. The Apple iOS is not capable of automating the deletion process. Too bad, would be helpful for users like me who want to make sure we get email from critical clients right away but let the desktop keep the historical record and have the server set to auto delete after a a few days, no further action required.

I agree that if Apple did address this though they would have to default to current behavior and put in optional switches for those of us who wanted to use a push down deletion stack model or it would confuse many. Not likely though since their preference is that we sign up for iCloud which makes this irrelevant and adds to their revenue stream.

The workaround is not too bad though since I set my server to only 4 days of mail, the rest is archived on the client.

Once a week I can easily bulk delete all mail on the phone:
EDIT/{select any mail}/MOVE {hold MOVE selection and unselect mail item}/ release MOVE/ TRASH moves all mail to trash.

The server will automatically repopulate the most recent 4 days of mail which I "mass mark" as read, and move on.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Xenc]

Switch your email server to IMAP/Exchange, if you can. This way you won't have to store historical records on a client or worry about deleting emails.

 

[sabretel]

Thanks, I have for the ones I have control on, unfortunately I don't have control on all of them. Thanks again though, at least I am not chasing my tail looking for something that doesn't exist and I have a workaround that isn't too horrible now.