Deleted emails keep coming back

I have repeatedly deleted emails on my Apple email account & I am talking thousands by this point & they keep coming back. I empty the trash. I am up to date on my software. I have deleted the account & re-added it. This is beyond frustrating! Does anyone have advice other than the normal canned response since I have already tried it ALL! Going onto a computer is a non option & I only use my phone for my email.

Posted on Apr 23, 2023 05:26 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 23, 2023 05:34 AM

If you are experiencing deleted emails coming back on the iOS mail app, there are a few possible reasons and solutions:


  1. It could be that your mail account is not syncing properly with your iOS device. To fix this, try turning off your email account in the Mail settings, then turn it back on again to refresh the sync.
  2. Check your Mail app settings whether it is POP3 or IMAP
  3. If your email service provider is experiencing issues, it could be causing deleted emails to reappear. Check with your email service provider to see if there are any known issues or outages.

It does sync automatically. If you added IMAP email accounts, iOS mail app does add IMAP by default.



When you set up an email address in an email client, you will need to decide if you want to set it up as POP3 or IMAP. Both of them are ways to connect to the mail server so you can read your emails through an email client.

  • IMAP is short for Internet Message Access Protocol. With IMAP, the message does not remain on the local device, such as a computer, it remains on the server.
  • POP3 is short for Post Office Protocol. With POP3 mail, it will connect and attempt to keep the mail located on the local device (computer or mobile).


Pop3 vs. IMAP: Which is better?

  • IMAP is better if you are going to be accessing your email from multiple devices, such as a work computer and a smart phone.
  • POP3 works better if you are only using one device, but have a very large number of emails. It is also better if you have a poor internet connection and need to access your emails offline. For most people, IMAP will suit their needs better.


Note: If emails start appearing or disappearing from your inbox without you retrieving/deleting them, it almost always means one of your devices is on POP3. Backing up the emails and then resetting up the email account as IMAP will fix the problem.



5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 23, 2023 05:34 AM in response to Redsoxgrl7

If you are experiencing deleted emails coming back on the iOS mail app, there are a few possible reasons and solutions:


  1. It could be that your mail account is not syncing properly with your iOS device. To fix this, try turning off your email account in the Mail settings, then turn it back on again to refresh the sync.
  2. Check your Mail app settings whether it is POP3 or IMAP
  3. If your email service provider is experiencing issues, it could be causing deleted emails to reappear. Check with your email service provider to see if there are any known issues or outages.

It does sync automatically. If you added IMAP email accounts, iOS mail app does add IMAP by default.



When you set up an email address in an email client, you will need to decide if you want to set it up as POP3 or IMAP. Both of them are ways to connect to the mail server so you can read your emails through an email client.

  • IMAP is short for Internet Message Access Protocol. With IMAP, the message does not remain on the local device, such as a computer, it remains on the server.
  • POP3 is short for Post Office Protocol. With POP3 mail, it will connect and attempt to keep the mail located on the local device (computer or mobile).


Pop3 vs. IMAP: Which is better?

  • IMAP is better if you are going to be accessing your email from multiple devices, such as a work computer and a smart phone.
  • POP3 works better if you are only using one device, but have a very large number of emails. It is also better if you have a poor internet connection and need to access your emails offline. For most people, IMAP will suit their needs better.


Note: If emails start appearing or disappearing from your inbox without you retrieving/deleting them, it almost always means one of your devices is on POP3. Backing up the emails and then resetting up the email account as IMAP will fix the problem.



Apr 28, 2023 03:36 AM in response to SravanKrA

I have same issue. I’ve noticed it before but thought I’d imagined it until I deleted a couple of thousand emails off my iPad and watched as my iPhone XS number of emails went down then back up again with all of the deleted emails in my iPhone but not iPad. The account is set up as IMAP and it seems to only affect deleted emails. So frustrating. Software is up to date IOS 16.4.1. Any ideas?

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Deleted emails keep coming back

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