OS X Mail: Change the "Erase deleted messages" time

[carlsson]

Mail.app in OS X 10.9:

Is there a way to set the "Permanently erase deleted messages when:" time to *higher* than 1 month?

I would like it to be like 3 months, and I guess that there's a preferences file somewhere...?

Tia,
Andreas

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

in : ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist

You will find that line : "NumberOfDaysToKeepTrash".

Value :
-1 = Never
0 = When quitting Mail
1 = one day
7 = one week
30 = one month


example (one month) :

<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepTrash</key>
<string>30</string>

Try this :

<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepTrash</key>
<string>90</string>

The Mail preferences panel will still display "one month", though.

 

[carlsson]

Thanks Bruno.

However, I have no such line. I guess that I can create one such line for each account that I use, right?

 

[Bruno09]

Here is the end of my .plist.
Just replaced my actual name with "my name".

It's a POP account.
May be you are using an IMAP account ?
I don't know how the .plist looks like when using an IMAP account.
I don't have an IMAP account on the computer I am using right now, so I can't check.

<array>
<string>my mail address </string>
</array>
<key>FullUserName</key>
<string>my name</string>
<key>Hostname</key>
<string>pop.orange.fr</string>
<key>JunkMailboxName</key>
<string>Junk</string>
<key>NotesMailboxName</key>
<string>Notes</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepTrash</key>
<string>-1</string>
<key>PortNumber</key>
<string>995</string>
<key>SMTPIdentifier</key>
<string>smtp.orange.fr:my name</string>
<key>SSLEnabled</key>
<string>YES</string>
<key>SentMessagesMailboxName</key>
<string>Sent Messages</string>
<key>ToDosMailboxName</key>
<string>Apple Mail To Do</string>
<key>TrashMailboxName</key>
<string>Deleted Messages</string>
<key>Username</key>
<string>my name/string>
<key>uniqueId</key>
<string>XXXX1E04-3D77-49CA-8BFF-XXXXXXXXXXX</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>OutboxMailboxPath</key>
<string>~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/Outbox.mbox</string>
</dict>
</plist>