How to Remove IMAP Emails from Server? Step-By-Step Guide

Do you want to delete IMAP emails from the server? In this article, I will explain to you how you can easily remove your IMAP emails without any issues. I will also tell you a way to save your IMAP emails as a precautionary option.

Internet Message Access Protocol, or IMAP, is a standard email protocol to access and manage your emails from the mail server. It is different from POP3 as the email is stored on the server, where you can easily read, delete, organize messages, and also provide real-time sync with other devices.

In this modern world, many users are opening their IMAP accounts on multiple devices for easy access. Along with it also offers help to individuals or organizations for several situations, like storing your emails on a server, efficient management, and read time synchronization. That’s why many email applications, whether it is desktop or web-based, support an IMAP server.

How does IMAP Handle Email Deletion?

One of the main roles of IMAP is to synchronize mailboxes across all the connected devices. When someone deletes the email messages from one account, it automatically reflects on other configured accounts. This makes your work easier and quicker.

But remember that it only works when your message is in the mail server. If your email messages are stored on your local desktop and remove it. Then, only the data stored in the hard drive would be deleted, as you can still see your data in your account. Thus, while you delete your emails, remember this point because many users ask queries about this.

Why Users Want to Delete IMAP Emails from Server?

But the question is, why do you have to remove the IMAP emails from the server? There are several situations where you have to delete the emails. They are following.

• Many email providers have limited storage capacity. If it becomes full, you have to delete old or unnecessary emails to reduce the storage space. So, by directly deleting your emails from the IMAP server, you can make sure that proper space is given to save new data.
• With outdated newsletters, spam, and unwanted email messages, your inboxes. So, removing this data from the server keeps your mailbox clean and tidy across devices.
• Storing all the important and sensitive emails on your server can attract risks. So, it is better to remove them from the server to minimize the chance of any account-related incident. It is also crucial to first save this confidential data before taking the bold move.
• Before switching to another service, it is recommended to remove your old or unnecessary emails from the IMAP server so that there will be no data duplication.
• Organizations have strict policies about how long emails will remain on the server. After that, they have to delete the email from the server to meet their company’s compliance requirements.

Now, let’s see how you can delete IMAP emails from the server in different email applications.

Remove IMAP Emails in Webmail

If you are using Outlook.com, Gmail, or Yahoo, and want to delete the IMAP emails. Follow the steps below.

1. Log in to any email providers like Gmail, Outlook.com, etc.
2. Choose the emails you want to remove.
3. Click on the Trash or Deleted Items folder.
4. From the trash folder, click on Empty Trash or Delete Forever.

Delete IMAP Emails from Desktop

1. Sign in to the email application on your computer.
2. Go to the IMAP email account and choose your email messages.
3. Click on the delete button in the corner of the emails.
4. Then, go to the delete item folder and empty it.

Remove IMAP Emails from Archive Folder

There is another way to delete emails by creating a folder within the email application. Move the email to the folder and delete it. Below are the steps that you can use.

1. First, open the email client that supports IMAP.
2. Create a new local folder or a new PST file.
3. Go to the folder where your IMAP emails are stored.
4. Select your email, drag and drop it into the folder that you have created.
5. After that, delete this folder.

The above methods manually delete the IMAP emails. But you can automatically delete by setting up the policy. Here is how you can do it.

Automatically Remove IMAP Emails from Webmail Server

1. Go to the Google Admin Console and log in to the administrator account.
2. Click on the Menu button, then select the Apps option.
3. Select the Google Workspace, then Gmail, and the Compliance button.
4. Navigate to the Email and chat auto-deletion setting.
5. Choose Automatically delete email and chat messages older than and provide the number of days you want to store your messages.
6. Select the option to either move the messages to the trash or delete them permanently.
7. Hit the Save button.

How to Delete IMAP Email from Server Automatically

Outlook

1. Go to the File menu and then Account Settings. Again, click on Account Settings.
2. Select the IMAP account, and hit the Change option.
3. Click on More Settings. From the Advanced tab, click on the check box “remove from server when deleted from deleted items.
4. Lastly, press the Save button.

Thunderbird

1. In the Tools menu of Thunderbird, click on Account Settings.
2. Select your IMAP account and choose Synchronization & Storage.
3. Click on the checkbox “permanently delete old messages to recover disk space” and set your desired time limit.
4. Go to the Server Settings and enable Clean up (expunge) inbx on Exit.

Apple Mail

1. In your Mac Mail settings. Go to the Mail option.
2. Click on the IMAP account and the name of the account.
3. Then, press the Advanced option. Now, from Deleted messages, choose the Remove button.

Here are all the methods that you can use to delete IMAP emails from the server. But, before removing the IMAP emails, it is important to backup your data. For this, I have a perfect solution for you.

Backup IMAP Emails Before Deletions

Whenever you want to remove your data, it is crucial to save it. For this reason, use SysTools IMAP Backup Tool, a professional software to download your emails. It is very easy to use the utility because of its user-friendly interface. The tool provides several export options like PST, PDF, EML, MBOX, etc. So, with the help of this, you can easily access your data.

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Conclusion

In this article, I have provided several methods for deleting IMAP emails from the server. Here, I have explained manual and automatic methods to remove your IMAP emails. Properly follow them, but make sure you backup your data first so that you retain data whenever you need it.