iPhone: How to Delete Email

Contributor Icon Contributed by iphone_dude Date Icon June 24, 2007  
Tag Icon Tagged: Apple iPhone

With all the spam in this world, deleting email is a common part of life. Here I will describe the two different ways of deleting email from your iPhone.


iPhone supports gmail, yahoo mail, .mac, and POP mail systems without any problems. Deleting email from an account can be done as follows:

1. Go into your email on your iPhone

2. Press the Edit icon in the upper right hand corner

3. Press the Red minus key beside the email you wish to delete.

4. Confirm your deletion by pressing the red delete key that appears to the right of the email message.

5. Press the Done icon in the upper right hand corner when finished.

Shortcut:

    You can also make the delete key appear by dragging your finger from left to right across an email as shown in the picture below:

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  • DJones
    Is there a way to delete message from the phone but retain them on my computer?
  • Janet Miller
    did you ever get a response to this question?
  • Janet Miller
    Did you ever get a response to deleting messages on your iphone but retaining them on the computer?
  • Erick
    did you ever get an answer???
  • sherry kelley
    my email on the Iphone 3G with AOL--I cn no longer send read emails to the trast or delete--I clled Iphone and they told me it was an AOL problem I had to contact AOL--my AOL is filling up with unwanted emails
  • Jon Warner
    Aol stinks, I'm changing to gmail
  • Charlie
    Mine too... every since the 2.02 upgrade came out. Did you find a solution???
  • Jon Warner
    Have message:
    iPhone cannot delete mail.
    Unable to move message the message could not be moved to the mailbox trash.
    Please email me the solution
    jon@cannonsports.com
  • Lisa Cassel
    When I try to delete mail out of aol acct I get message that it cannot be moved to mailbox trash Help
  • Linda Beeler
    To Lisa,
    Have you figured out a solution about delting your mail. I have the same problem. I get a messageunable to move message.
    Linda
  • Mike
    Hi. My iPhone isn't allowing me to delete my inbox. A window is popping up saying that the message cannot go in the trash. Can you please help me? Send me the solution please. Thank you.
  • Mjazz
    I've been having this same problem for over about a week. I have been able to delete from my MobileMe roadrunner and gmail accounts. Looks like we'll just have to wait till aol fixes problem or do the inconvenient thing and delete our emails from an actual computer.
  • Tommie
    How can you Sync email with your computer to delete all (91) without doing each separately?
  • Linda Beeler
    I have the I PHone. I try to delete my messages. It repeatedly says "unable to move message to trash bin. How do I correct this. It had been working fine. Please respond to my e-mail address. Thanks.
    Linda
  • Steve
    did you ever get an answer?
  • Nozz
    Linda,
    I have the same problem. I on AOL & have not been able to use the trash bin facility since downloading the new 2.02 upgrade. Please let me know if you are successful in solving the problem.Thanks
  • donna
    i am having the same issue. it is so infuriating I can't get this to work at all did anyone respond to you>
  • John Lefebvre
    Here is the msg. I receive when I try to delete e-mail.

    Unable to move Mesaages
    The messages could not be moved to the mailbox trash.

    Please help me.
  • dellis
    Is there a way to do a mass delete? A la Blackberry, "delete all?"
  • John
    tried this - worked on one email adress but not another. when this was tried a message was recieved saying " Unable to Move Message: Message could not be moved to mailbox trash". What should I do next?
  • For those having problems, are you using POP or IMAP?
  • ty
    put your iphone in airplane mode then delete msgs
  • Diana
    Thank you!!! this worked for me. I couldn't delet my email forever, now It's gone.
  • JÕÊŁ Latino
    Put ur iPhone in airplane then delete the mail you don't want and delete them from trash that's it u got it
  • ums
    I had the same problem with a POP account. I went into the advanced settings for the account (on the iPhone) and re-set the destination for where the deleted items should go on the server.
  • Arline nechtow
    Major problems deleting e-mails while on vacation. Major inconvenience getting to a desk top . Please contact me for discount on bill. Tenan@aol.com
  • Ac
    I put my phone on airplane mode then proceeded with deleting my emails on aol.
  • frances
    when you delete e-mail off the computer (yahoo account) does it delete the message on your iphone as well or does it show on your phone still?
  • Carol
    Worked for me - thanks!!!
  • Gary Moore
    Worked for me too On AOL just go to mail top setting and turn on AIRPLANE mode and emails can then be deleted either of two ways...
  • anonymous
    If you are getting an error message when trying to delete AOL emails from your iPhone after the 2.2 software update, do this: tap Settings > Mail,Contacts,Calenders > (aol account) > Advanced > Deleted Messages. Select "Spam" from the list. Press Home button. Repeat the previous procedure except this time re-select "Trash" from the list. Tap the Home button. You will now be able to delete your AOL emails from the iPhone again.
  • Ben
    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Dude
    Holy Crap!!!!!! Thank You SOOOOOOO much!!!!!!
  • Mindy
    You're awesome.thanks!!!!!
  • Rick Heard
    This Totally Works! Thanks, it's been driving me crazy ever since the upgrade.
  • Carol
    Still cannot delete emails - tried everything?
  • Iphone Noob
    Here is what worked for me.... 1. Open SETTINGS....2. Open MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS.....3. Open you Email Acct......4. Scroll down to ADVANCED and open....5. Open DELETED MAILBOX....(There should be a check mark next to TRASH) 6. Tap on something to uncheck TRASH (like SAVED or SENT ITEMS....I don't think it matters) Then Tap TRASH so the check mark is next to it again. 7. Press your HOME button to take you back to the Springboard....Now you can open your email and it should delete.
    It worked for me......GOOD LUCK
  • cliff
    Thank you, it worked fine.
  • Sal
    That did it!!
    Thanks a bunch.
  • john
    7. Pete Says:

    November 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
    I just called Apple support and the following seems to have fixed the problem: Go to settings > mail > click on the email account > advanced > deleted mailbox > then touch the “Trash” box. Nothing appears to happen — though it turns blue momentarily. The check remains. But when I went back into my email account (AOL), this had corrected the problem. I had previously tried to reset the iPhone and that failed to correct the problem
  • GlenW
    What if you have no advanced ... Do you have to enable the advanced option ? I am getting the same problem connecting to an Exchange Server ... so it may be Exchange connector does not have an Advanced option ... was everyone here struggling with only AOL emails.
  • Karen
    When I attempt to delete a message I get an error message that says "Unable to Move Message; The message could not be moved to the mailbox trash" . I do not even have a mailbox called trash.
  • bryan
    yes but how do you delete 99 emails without having to touch each one of them,,,, that is my frustration
  • David
    How do you delete email names?
  • Sal
    Tried the above solution but the message " unable to move message to mailbox trash" comes up.
    Please help.
    Thanks
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