Related Articles
- 1 Delete an Old Mail From the iPad
- 2 Hook Up Yahoo Mail to a DROID
- 3 Retrieve Emails on an iPhone
- 4 Attaching Photos to Facebook Messages on the iPad
Checking your email from your iPhone is a great way to ensure you stay in touch with colleagues, customers and the day-to-day running of your business. The native Mail application can check multiple email accounts directly from your iPhone, but must be properly set up to perform maintenance tasks such as moving or deleting messages.
POP or IMAP Email
If you are experiencing problems with your iPhone's email, it's important to determine whether you are using a POP or IMAP email service. POP email downloads the messages to your iPhone and deletes them from the server, while IMAP accounts leave messages on the server and merely sync them with your iPhone. These two types of email use different methods of deleting messages. If messages cannot be deleted, it is likely you are using an IMAP service that has been incorrectly set up.
IMAP Email Deletion
Feb 5, 2019 - But as it turns out, the web is full of people with emails stuck in their Outlook's Inbox and the causes are multiple. The issue usually goes like. If it happens to you, here's what to do (Outlook 2003, 2007): • Go to Tools>Options>Mail Setup. Look for the Send/Receive button, and click that. • When the new box pops up, uncheck everything. • Close, restart Outlook. Then, go in and delete what is in the Outbox. • When it's deleted, go back.
In order to delete an IMAP message, the iPhone's Mail app must send an instruction to the server to mark the message as deleted. However, this does not necessarily mean the message will disappear from the list, giving the impression that it has not been deleted. Instead, the server places a strikethrough line across the email's subject, indicating it has been marked for deletion. This is a safety feature that allows you to recover a deleted message if required, and only purges deleted messages from the server after a certain length of time.
Mail App Settings
![Outlook Emails Stuck In Inbox Outlook Emails Stuck In Inbox](/uploads/1/2/5/1/125139201/708135603.png)
Your iPhone must be instructed to use the correct folders when deleting messages. Deleted messages on an IMAP server cannot be moved to a trash folder stored on your iPhone, as this is contrary to the way in which IMAP works. Open the 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars' option in the Settings app, tap the appropriate email account, then the 'Advanced' button. Tap the 'Deleted Mailbox' button and select the 'Trash' folder in the 'On The Server' section. The Mail app now sends deleted messages to the correct folder on the server.
Restore Your iPhone
POP email messages are only stored on your iPhone, so any difficulty in deleting them suggests a fault with the native Mail application, or the operating system. Connect your iPhone to your computer using its USB cable, launch iTunes and click the 'Restore' button. This returns the iPhone to a previous state from a backup file stored in iTunes. If a systemic fault has developed, restoring the device should repair it. Follow the instructions in iTunes to set up the iPhone as a new device, should restoring from a backup not solve the problem.
References (2)
Resources (1)
About the Author
Spanner Spencer has been writing since 2005 for a variety of print and online publications. Focusing on entertainment, gaming and technology, his work has been published by Eurogamer.net, 'The Escapist,' 'GamesTM,' 'Retro Gamer,' 'Empire,' 'Total PC Gaming' 'The Guardian,' among others. Spencer is a qualified medical electronics engineer with a Business and Technology Education Council certificate in technical writing from Huddersfield Technical College.
Cite this Article Choose Citation Style
Spencer, Spanner. 'The iPhone Mail Is Not Deleting.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/iphone-mail-not-deleting-48333.html. Accessed 10 November 2019.
Spencer, Spanner. (n.d.). The iPhone Mail Is Not Deleting. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/iphone-mail-not-deleting-48333.html
Spencer, Spanner. 'The iPhone Mail Is Not Deleting' accessed November 10, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/iphone-mail-not-deleting-48333.html
Note: Depending on which text editor you're pasting into, you might have to add the italics to the site name.
When trying to delete a message, it could be that Outlook refuses this and shows an error message. Most common error messages are;
“An unknown error has occurred.”
and
“Messaging interface has caused an unknown error.”
There are 4 easy methods which you can use to solve this for most situations.
![Outlook Emails Stuck In Inbox Outlook Emails Stuck In Inbox](/uploads/1/2/5/1/125139201/597788639.png)
Note:
If you have a message stuck in your Outbox see; Message stuck in Outbox.
If you get the error “The Folder is full” see; Folder is full.
If you have a message stuck in your Outbox see; Message stuck in Outbox.
If you get the error “The Folder is full” see; Folder is full.
Method 1 – Empty the Deleted Items folder
The easiest method is to first empty the Deleted Items folder and then try to delete the message again.
A quick way to do this is by right clicking on the Deleted Items folder and choosing “Empty folder”. You’ll also find this command when you select the Deleted Items folder and then select the Folder tab of the Ribbon.
Method 2 – Hard delete the message
You can also “hard delete” the message by holding the SHIFT button while clicking on the Delete button or using the Delete button on your keyboard.
This message will now skip the Deleted Items folder and will directly be permanently deleted. Outlook will display a warning if you really want to do this.
Method 3 – Edit the message
By editing the message first and saving it, you could reset a particular corruption of the message which allows you to remove it normally afterwards;
- Open the message by double clicking on it.
- Place the message in edit mode;
- Outlook 2003 and previous
Choose Edit-> Edit message… - Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
Actions-> Edit Message
- Outlook 2003 and previous
- Type or remove some characters (I usually type 3 spaces).
- Save and close the message.
- Try to delete the message again.
Method 4 – Scan your pst-file for errors
If the above methods fail, the issue could be caused by a corruption within your pst-file. To fix this issues, run
scanpst.exe
against your Personal Storage (pst-) file. The location of scanpst.exe
depends on your version of Outlook and Windows.For an overview of the possible locations see; Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) or use OutlookTools (free) to locate it for you.
If you do not know the location of your pst-file, you can use one of the following methods to locate it;
- Make sure you include hidden and system files and folders when searching for pst-file
- Default locations are;
C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook
C:Users%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook
My DocumentsOutlook Files
DocumentsOutlook Files
- You can also locate the file in Outlook by using;
- Right click the root folder (probably Outlook Today)-> Properties-> button Advanced-> field Filename
- Outlook 2007 and previous
File-> Data File Management… - Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
File-> Account Settings-> Accounts Settings…-> tab Data Files
For a complete step-by-step tutorial about using
Using the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe)
scanpst.exe
see:Using the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe)