Reclaim storage space by setting up your Mail accounts on Mac to automatically erase deleted emails and regularly clean out your mailboxes.
If you try to keep up with your inbox, you may go through it regularly and clean it up by getting rid of unwanted emails. But after you delete those emails, do you take an additional step to remove them?
You can configure each account in the Apple Mail app to automatically erase deleted emails on a regular basis. You can do it on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule or even each time you quit the Mail app. Note that this option is missing in the Mail app on iPhone and iPad.
Also see: 40+ tips for the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Purge deleted emails regularly in the Mail app
The nice thing about this feature in Mail on Mac is that you can set a different schedule for each email account. You can even set a certain account to keep your deleted emails forever instead of erasing them if you prefer.
- Open the Mail app and click Mail > Settings or Preferences from the top menu bar.
- Select the Accounts tab.
- Choose an account you want to configure on the left.
- Select the Mailbox Behaviors tab on the right.
- Next to Trash Mailbox, you can select the one you want to use from the drop-down list. (Not available for Exchange accounts.)
- Below that setting, click the one for Erase deleted messages. Then, choose after one day, one week, one month, or when quitting Mail. If this is an account where you want to keep the deleted messages instead, choose Never.
Tip: You can do the same thing for your Junk Mailbox in the same spot to rid yourself of those emails regularly.
If you delete an email, then you obviously don’t want it or no longer need it. So why hang onto them any longer than you have to? Clean out those deleted emails every so often or every day if you like. Will you?
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