Delete email

Deleted messages are moved to the Trash mailbox in iCloud Mail. After you delete a message, it’s saved in your Trash for 30 days, after which it’s permanently erased from the Trash.

Delete messages

Select one or more messages, then do any of the following:
- Click the Delete button in the toolbar.
  If you don’t see the Delete button in the toolbar, choose Preferences from the Action pop-up menu , click General, then turn off “Show Archive icon in the toolbar.”
- Press the Delete or Backspace key.
- Drag messages to the Trash in the sidebar.
To select several adjacent messages, click the first one, then Shift-click the last one. To select multiple nonadjacent messages, Command-click them on a Mac or Control-click them on a Windows computer.

Erase messages immediately and permanently

You can have iCloud Mail permanently and immediately erase messages when you delete them, instead of storing them in the Trash for 30 days.

Choose Preferences from the Action pop-up menu in the sidebar.
In the General pane, deselect “Move deleted messages to,” then click Done.

Change where deleted messages are stored

By default, iCloud Mail moves messages to the Trash when you delete them, and messages in the Trash are erased permanently when they’re 30 days old. If you don’t want your messages to be automatically erased after 30 days, you can have iCloud Mail move them to another folder.

Choose Preferences from the Action pop-up menu in the sidebar.
In the General pane, select “Move deleted messages to,” choose another folder from the menu, then click Done.