Delete email permanently in Gmail

If you delete a message from your Inbox or one of your custom folders, it will still appear in [Gmail]/All Mail.

Here’s why: in most folders, deleting a message simply removes that folder’s label from the message, including the label identifying the message as being in your Inbox.

[Gmail]/All Mail shows all of your messages, whether or not they have labels attached to them.

If you want to permanently delete a message from all folders:

Move it to the [Gmail]/Trash folder (or [Gmail]/Bin or national version).
Delete it from the [Gmail]/Trash folder (or [Gmail]/Bin or national version).

All emails in [Gmail]/Spam and [Gmail]/Trash are deleted after 30 days.
If you delete a message from [Gmail]/Spam or [Gmail]/Trash, it will be deleted permanently.

Here’s how this looks like using Mail.dll .NET IMAP component:

Delete emails permanently (C# version)

// C# version:

using(Imap imap = new Imap())
{
	imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");
	imap.UseBestLogin("user@gmail.com", "password");

	// Recognize Trash folder
	List<FolderInfo> folders = imap.GetFolders();
 	CommonFolders common = new CommonFolders(folders);
 	FolderInfo trash = common.Trash;

	// Find all emails we want to delete
	imap.SelectInbox();
	List<long> uids = imap.Search(
		Expression.Subject("email to delete"));

	// Move email to Trash
	List<long> uidsInTrash = new List<long>();
	foreach (long uid in uids)
	{
		long uidInTrash = (long)imap.MoveByUID(uid, trash);
		uidsInTrash.Add(uidInTrash);
	}

	// Delete moved emails from Trash
	imap.Select(trash);
	foreach (long uid in uidsInTrash)
	{
		imap.DeleteMessageByUID(uid);
	}

	imap.Close();
}

Delete emails permanently (VB.NET version)

Using imap As New Imap()
	imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com")
	imap.UseBestLogin("user@gmail.com", "password")

	' Recognize Trash folder
	Dim folders As List(Of FolderInfo) = imap.GetFolders()
	Dim common As CommonFolders = new CommonFolders(folders)
	Dim trash As FolderInfo = common.Trash

	' Find all emails we want to delete
	imap.SelectInbox()
	Dim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.Search( _
		Expression.Subject("email to delete"))

	' Move email to Trash
	Dim uidsInTrash As New List(Of Long)
	For Each uid As Long In uids
		Dim uidInTrash As Long = imap.MoveByUID(uid,trash)
		uidsInTrash.Add(uidInTrash)
	Next

	' Delete moved emails from Trash
	imap.[Select](trash)
	For Each uid As Long In uidsInTrash
		imap.DeleteMessageByUID(uid)
	Next

	imap.Close()
End Using

You can also use bulk methods to handle large amount of emails faster:

Delete emails permanently in bulk (C# version)

using(Imap imap = new Imap())
{
	imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");
	imap.UseBestLogin("user@gmail.com", "password");

	// Recognize Trash folder
	List<FolderInfo> folders = imap.GetFolders();
 	CommonFolders common = new CommonFolders(folders);
 	FolderInfo trash = common.Trash;

	// Find all emails we want to delete
	imap.SelectInbox();
	List<long> uids = imap.Search(
		Expression.Subject("email to delete"));

	// Move emails to Trash
	List<long> uidsInTrash = imap.MoveByUID(uids, trash);

	// Delete moved emails from Trash
	imap.Select(trash);
	imap.DeleteMessageByUID(uidsInTrash);

	imap.Close();
}

Delete emails permanently in bulk (VB.NET version)

Using imap As New Imap()
	imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com")
	imap.UseBestLogin("user@gmail.com", "password")

	' Recognize Trash folder
	Dim folders As List(Of FolderInfo) = imap.GetFolders()
	Dim common As CommonFolders = new CommonFolders(folders)
	Dim trash As FolderInfo = common.Trash

	' Find all emails we want to delete
	imap.SelectInbox()
	Dim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.Search( _
		Expression.Subject("email to delete"))

	' Move email to Trash
	Dim uidsInTrash As List(Of Long) = imap.MoveByUID(uids, trash)

	' Delete moved emails from Trash
	imap.[Select](trash)
	imap.DeleteMessageByUID(uidsInTrash)

	imap.Close()
End Using

Please also note that there are 2 additional sections in the “Gmail settings”/”Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab:

“When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted:”

Auto-Expunge on – Immediately update the server. (default)
Expunge off – Wait for the client to update the server.

“When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder:”

Archive the message (default)
Move the message to the Trash
Immediately delete the message forever

Those settings change the default behavior of the account and modify DeleteMessage* methods behavior.

Tags: C# Gmail IMAP IMAP component VB.NET

Pintu Says:
April 16th, 2014 at 12:51

Topic: deleting email permanently

long uidInTrash = (long)imap.MoveByUID(uid, “[Gmail]/Trash”);

from this line of code get the gollwing error:
Error 1 Cannot convert type ‘void’ to ‘long’

Limilabs support Says:
April 16th, 2014 at 14:22

@Pintu Make sure you have the latest version installed.

Farooq Says:
July 29th, 2014 at 10:41

How to do the same for POP3 accounts?

Limilabs support Says:
July 29th, 2014 at 11:39

@Farooq
POP3 protocol does not have a concept of seen/unseen emails nor folders.

If you need to delete an email just use Pop3.DeleteMessage or Pop3.DeleteMessageByUID method.

vinay Bammidi Says:
January 8th, 2015 at 17:57

Hi,

I like to delete my sent mails in gamil. how can i do this.

Limilabs support Says:
January 8th, 2015 at 18:31

@Vinay
Instead of
imap.SelectInbox()
use
imap.Select("[Gmail]/Sent Mail")

If you want to delete all emails in this folder replace the search code with:
List uids = imap.GetAll();
-or-
Dim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.GetAll()

vinay Bammidi Says:
January 9th, 2015 at 09:08

A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond 74.125.155.109:143

I am getting this error.Can you please tell me how to fix this.

Limilabs support Says:
January 9th, 2015 at 12:42

@Vinay

Most likely your server does not require SSL. Just use Imap.Connect method in that case. Please also read this post: Connection attempt failed.

Please contat us directly if you have other connection problems.

hiremath V K Says:
April 19th, 2015 at 10:49

hi,
i want to delete mails from outlook.
plz Ans,.
thank you.

Limilabs support Says:
April 20th, 2015 at 06:35

@hiremath

With Mail.dll you can delete and manage email on any IMAP or POP3 server (including Exchange).

Outlook is a client application. If you want to delete email from a local pst store, Mail.dll is not going to help you, but if you want to delete emails from Exchange read this post: Delete email messages using IMAP. You may need to establish SSL connection but it’s quite easy just use ConnectSSL method.

fireandhemlock Says:
July 11th, 2015 at 09:34

hey, I was wondering, whether similar code can be used to immediately delete mails from ONE particular contact?

Limilabs support Says:
July 12th, 2015 at 11:50

@fireandhemlock

You just need to change the search code.

The following code searches for all email sent from alice:

List<long> uids = imap.Search(Expression.From("alice@company.org"));

Dim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.Search(Expression.From("alice@company.org"))

Read more about searching emails on IMAP server.

If you are using Gmail you also may also use Gmail’s specific search syntax (same as on Gmail web site).

Sean Says:
April 15th, 2016 at 05:22

How can I erase an email from my company’s server when we use gmail but we have our own @xxxxx.org? This email was intended to be sent from my personal email. I commited the mistake using my droid gmail application. I need to erase this email permanently and right away from my company’s server. I ignore if they have flags or anything. I know the Techn. guy is really good at monitoring us. That kind of company unfortunately. THANKS!

Limilabs support Says:
April 15th, 2016 at 09:50

If the message was already sent there is nothing you can do to ‘revoke’ it. It has been relied to other SMTP servers and/or other users accounts on POP3/IMAP servers.

You can delete it from your ‘sent mail’ folder, but it will not delete it from recipients’ inboxes.

Santhosh Says:
September 23rd, 2017 at 13:59

hi sir
for gmail is is [Gmail] (as in imap.[Select](“[Gmail]/Trash”)) what is mail box name for outlook.

Limilabs support Says:
September 23rd, 2017 at 17:36

@Santhosh,

For Outlook.com trash folder is called “Deleted”. You can use CommonFolders class to get known folders:

FolderInfo folder = new CommonFolders(client.GetFolders()).Trash

You can find more details under common IMAP folders.

John Says:
January 25th, 2018 at 06:47

when i want to delete bulk mail list and i move that id’s to trash it gives empty list

List uidlistInTrash =new List();
uidlistInTrash =p_imapClient.MoveByUID(p_uidlist, “[Gmail]/Trash”);

here p_uidlist contains 15 items still it gives uidlistInTrash 0

Limilabs support Says:
February 2nd, 2018 at 15:45

@John,

Were those emails actually moved?
Could you please send us the logs (http://www.limilabs.com/blog/logging-in-mail-dll)

I’ve double checked and I’m absolutely sure that MoveByUID returns non-empty list in such case.

Delete email permanently in Gmail

Delete emails permanently (C# version)

Delete emails permanently (VB.NET version)

Delete emails permanently in bulk (C# version)

Delete emails permanently in bulk (VB.NET version)

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