You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Clearing junk mail from Apple mail

Why, when clearing junk mail from the junk folder, does the junk wind up in my trash folder instead of being gone?

iPhone SE, iOS 14

Posted on Jul 25, 2022 10:45 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 26, 2022 12:38 PM

Hello Kenneth Martz,


Regarding the issue with clearing junk emails on your iPhone, it's expected behavior for deleted message to move to the trash folder. The steps below found in the article here: Delete emails on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, can help with permanently deleting an email.


"How to delete a single email 


  1. Open Mail and go to your Inbox. 
  2. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner, then select the email that you want to delete. 
  3. Tap Trash or Archive.

You can also quickly swipe left over a single email to delete it. Or touch and hold the email from your Inbox, then tap the Trash button in the menu that pops up.


If you're trying to delete a message from within the email, tap the Archive button or the Trash button, then tap Archive Message or Trash Message.


Depending on the type of email account you have, you might see Archive instead of Trash when you try to delete emails. You can edit your mailbox behavior settings to change this."


You can also find helpful information and steps here: Delete and recover emails in Mail on iPhone


Best.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 26, 2022 12:38 PM in response to Kenneth Martz

Hello Kenneth Martz,


Regarding the issue with clearing junk emails on your iPhone, it's expected behavior for deleted message to move to the trash folder. The steps below found in the article here: Delete emails on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, can help with permanently deleting an email.


"How to delete a single email 


  1. Open Mail and go to your Inbox. 
  2. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner, then select the email that you want to delete. 
  3. Tap Trash or Archive.

You can also quickly swipe left over a single email to delete it. Or touch and hold the email from your Inbox, then tap the Trash button in the menu that pops up.


If you're trying to delete a message from within the email, tap the Archive button or the Trash button, then tap Archive Message or Trash Message.


Depending on the type of email account you have, you might see Archive instead of Trash when you try to delete emails. You can edit your mailbox behavior settings to change this."


You can also find helpful information and steps here: Delete and recover emails in Mail on iPhone


Best.


Jul 26, 2022 10:13 PM in response to OrigamiFan1

Thank you for the response. The steps you note above are what I use to delete emails, only I tap Delete, rather than Trash or Archive. I use Trash to clear my inbox of otherwise good emails that I may refer to until the system removes them.

My expectation was that to Delete meant instantaneous, permanent and unrecoverably gone. My best option, then, must be to let the Junk mailbox grow until the system clears the emails based on time.

Again, Thank you, Ken

Clearing junk mail from Apple mail

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.