[Marginally OT] Does GMail Actually Delete Email?

[John Voigt]

On Wednesday 30 July 2008 10:14 am, Dog Walker spake unto the assembled:

> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 6:27 AM, James McDonald
>
> <james at jamesmcdonald.id.au>wrote:
> > Kurt Wall wrote:
> >> Hi, list,
> >>
> >> I checked my GMail account via IMAP (using KMail, if you /must/ know)
> >> tonight. Much to my surprise, the "All Mail" folder had well north of
> >> 21,000 messages in it, dating back to to sometime in 2005 when I
> >> first got my GMail account. I'm /quite/ sure that I deleted that
> >> email (using the GMail interface, of course), so I was quite
> >> surprised to see that they had kept all that detritus around for 3+
> >> years. Anyone else here had a similar experience?
> >>
> >> I've never trusted Google, so this isn't helping their cause with
> >> me...
> >
> > I just logged in via IMAP using Tbird and I can delete items from my
> > All Mail folder which then moves to Trash then I empty trash and then
> > I get the same emails appearing back in All Mail...
> >
> > Seems to be inconsistent because some emails you have to delete
> > several times to get them to finally disappear from the All Mails
> > folder.
> >
> > So I wouldn't be suprised if you are getting what you are
> > describing...
> >
> > From memory wasn't the whole thing behind gmail about views and those
> > views aren't really folders but we think of them as such... The other
> > from memory thing was that they don't really delete things because
> > they scan it and use it for targetted advertising.
>
> *Deleting Messages*
>
> Gmail lets you delete either an entire
> conversation<http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=5900>or
> one message from a conversation. In either case, deleting will move
> the
> message to *Trash*, where you can permanently delete it or just wait 30
> days when Gmail will permanently delete it for you. If you want to keep
> a conversation but remove it from your inbox, try

<snippage>

Hi all,

I've run into this same thing, and with KMail (as indicated in Kurt's 
original post) it's slightly different than one would expect with a normal 
IMAP account. I'm not sure about Tbird yet.

Rather than using the delete button or the delete key, one must actually 
use "move to trash" (see below). Either add the button to the button bar, 
or use the context menu for "move to folder" and select Trash (the Gmail 
one). 

This must be the Trash folder under the GMAIL hierarchy _NOT_ the normal 
Trash folder created when configuring an IMAP in the KMail account setup 
(which is where "delete" normally sends stuff). It's a bit confusing when 
having two Trash folders, but when "move to trash" actually moves the 
message to the Trash folder on the Gmail server, it does the Right 
Thing(tm). You can then empty _that_ trash folder, re-sync IMAP, and 
things should be correct.

The whole 'label' thing with Gmail is a bit confusing, and it doesn't work 
quite as one would expect with a "normal" IMAP account.

Hopefully I misunderstood the original question incorrectly ;-)

HTH,

JV
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