{"id":575,"date":"2015-09-04T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/?p=575"},"modified":"2023-03-03T10:04:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T08:04:34","slug":"delete-email-permanently-in-gmail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/delete-email-permanently-in-gmail","title":{"rendered":"Delete email permanently in Gmail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you delete a message from your Inbox or one of your custom folders, it will still appear in [Gmail]\/All Mail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s why: in most folders, deleting a message simply removes that folder’s label from the message<\/strong>, including the label identifying the message as being in your Inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Gmail]\/All Mail shows all of your messages, whether or not they have labels attached to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to permanently delete a message<\/strong> from all folders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Move it to the [Gmail]\/Trash<\/strong> folder (or [Gmail]\/Bin or national version).<\/li>
  2. Delete it<\/strong> from the [Gmail]\/Trash folder (or [Gmail]\/Bin or national version).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    All emails in [Gmail]\/Spam and [Gmail]\/Trash are deleted after 30 days.
    If you delete a message from [Gmail]\/Spam or [Gmail]\/Trash, it will be deleted permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s how this looks like using Mail.dll .NET IMAP component<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Delete emails permanently (C# version)<\/h4>\n\n\n
    \n\/\/ C# version:\n\nusing(Imap imap = new Imap())\n{\n\timap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");\n\timap.UseBestLogin("user@gmail.com", "password");\n\n\t\/\/ Recognize Trash folder\n\tList<FolderInfo> folders = imap.GetFolders();\n \tCommonFolders common = new CommonFolders(folders);\n \tFolderInfo trash = common.Trash;\n\n\t\/\/ Find all emails we want to delete\n\timap.SelectInbox();\n\tList<long> uids = imap.Search(\n\t\tExpression.Subject("email to delete"));\n\n\t\/\/ Move email to Trash\n\tList<long> uidsInTrash = new List<long>();\n\tforeach (long uid in uids)\n\t{\n\t\tlong uidInTrash = (long)imap.MoveByUID(uid, trash);\n\t\tuidsInTrash.Add(uidInTrash);\n\t}\n\n\t\/\/ Delete moved emails from Trash\n\timap.Select(trash);\n\tforeach (long uid in uidsInTrash)\n\t{\n\t\timap.DeleteMessageByUID(uid);\n\t}\n\n\timap.Close();\n}\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
    Delete emails permanently (VB.NET version)<\/h4>\n\n\n
    \nUsing imap As New Imap()\n\timap.ConnectSSL(\"imap.gmail.com\")\n\timap.UseBestLogin(\"user@gmail.com\", \"password\")\n\n\t' Recognize Trash folder\n\tDim folders As List(Of FolderInfo) = imap.GetFolders()\n\tDim common As CommonFolders = new CommonFolders(folders)\n\tDim trash As FolderInfo = common.Trash\n\n\t' Find all emails we want to delete\n\timap.SelectInbox()\n\tDim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.Search( _\n\t\tExpression.Subject(\"email to delete\"))\n\n\t' Move email to Trash\n\tDim uidsInTrash As New List(Of Long)\n\tFor Each uid As Long In uids\n\t\tDim uidInTrash As Long = imap.MoveByUID(uid,trash)\n\t\tuidsInTrash.Add(uidInTrash)\n\tNext\n\n\t' Delete moved emails from Trash\n\timap.[Select](trash)\n\tFor Each uid As Long In uidsInTrash\n\t\timap.DeleteMessageByUID(uid)\n\tNext\n\n\timap.Close()\nEnd Using\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
    You can also use bulk methods<\/strong> to handle large amount of emails faster:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Delete emails permanently in bulk (C# version)<\/h4>\n\n\n
    \nusing(Imap imap = new Imap())\n{\n\timap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");\n\timap.UseBestLogin("user@gmail.com", "password");\n\n\t\/\/ Recognize Trash folder\n\tList<FolderInfo> folders = imap.GetFolders();\n \tCommonFolders common = new CommonFolders(folders);\n \tFolderInfo trash = common.Trash;\n\n\t\/\/ Find all emails we want to delete\n\timap.SelectInbox();\n\tList<long> uids = imap.Search(\n\t\tExpression.Subject("email to delete"));\n\n\t\/\/ Move emails to Trash\n\tList<long> uidsInTrash = imap.MoveByUID(uids, trash);\n\n\t\/\/ Delete moved emails from Trash\n\timap.Select(trash);\n\timap.DeleteMessageByUID(uidsInTrash);\n\n\timap.Close();\n}\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
    Delete emails permanently in bulk (VB.NET version)<\/h4>\n\n\n
    \nUsing imap As New Imap()\n\timap.ConnectSSL(\"imap.gmail.com\")\n\timap.UseBestLogin(\"user@gmail.com\", \"password\")\n\n\t' Recognize Trash folder\n\tDim folders As List(Of FolderInfo) = imap.GetFolders()\n\tDim common As CommonFolders = new CommonFolders(folders)\n\tDim trash As FolderInfo = common.Trash\n\n\t' Find all emails we want to delete\n\timap.SelectInbox()\n\tDim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.Search( _\n\t\tExpression.Subject(\"email to delete\"))\n\n\t' Move email to Trash\n\tDim uidsInTrash As List(Of Long) = imap.MoveByUID(uids, trash)\n\n\t' Delete moved emails from Trash\n\timap.[Select](trash)\n\timap.DeleteMessageByUID(uidsInTrash)\n\n\timap.Close()\nEnd Using\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
    Please also note that there are 2 additional sections in the “Gmail settings”\/”Forwarding and POP\/IMAP” tab:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    “When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted:”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    • Auto-Expunge on – Immediately update the server. (default)<\/li>
    • Expunge off – Wait for the client to update the server.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      “When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder:”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      • Archive the message (default)<\/li>
      • Move the message to the Trash<\/li>
      • Immediately delete the message forever<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        Those settings change the default behavior of the account and modify DeleteMessage* methods behavior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
        If you delete a message from your Inbox or one of your custom folders, it will still appear in [Gmail]\/All Mail. Here’s why: in most folders, deleting a message simply removes that folder’s label from the message, including the label identifying the message as being in your Inbox. [Gmail]\/All Mail shows all of your messages, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,25,28,77,57],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mail-dll","tag-c","tag-gmail","tag-imap","tag-imap-component","tag-vb-net"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6440,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/6440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}