My mail bin keeps being emptied automatically

[rdijkgraaf]

iMac M1 Latest Sonoma version.
I have set 'erase deleted messages' to 'never' in Apple Mail on my Mac and on all synchronising devices. But my deleted messages keep being erased after a month.

Am I missing something?

 

[Bigwaff]

I have set 'erase deleted messages' to 'never' in Apple Mail on my Mac and on all synchronising devices. But my deleted messages keep being erased after a month.

Is your email using POP or SMTP? Log into your email providers web console and check review the email retention settings.

 

[rdijkgraaf]

Thanks very much for your swift reply. I am using IMAP. Couldn't find any retention settings on the site of my provider. I sent them a question about it.

 

[adrianlondon]

It just needs one device that is connected to your IMAP account with the "delete after one month" option to be set, for them to be deleted.

Or your provider may be doing it automatically, or you may have set it up on your provider's webmail settings and forgot.

You've posted this in the Sequoia thread, so this problem only started once you installed the beta, and prior to the upgrade none of your mails were being permanently deleted?

 

[Fishrrman]

I have a friend who also believes his email "trash" folder should be his "archive".

That's NOT the way to do it.

If you "delete" a message, isn't that supposed to mean that you don't want to see it any more?
That's what the trash is for.

I'm thinking that even on today's modern systems, at some point having "too many" messages (at the ISP mail server level) in one's "trash" can start causing problems.

If you read a msg, then want to "kinda delete" it --- not see it anymore in your inbox, but there's a possibility that SOMEDAY you might want it again --- then create an "archive" folder (either on your Mac or on your ISP's mail server page) and move those msgs into THAT.

That is to say, differentiate the "kinda trash" from the REAL trash.

Things will just go better that way.