Problem:
Outlook cannot delete emails from the mail server for an IMAP Gmail account.
Software Setup:
Outlook 2019 Version 2305 (Build 16501.20210 Click-to-Run)
Windows 10 Home 22H2 (Build 19045.3086)
iPhone 13 Pro iOS 16.5.1(c)
Background:
When Outlook sets up a Gmail IMAP account, it creates the IMAP folders in the Outlook Navigation pane that will be kept in sync with those IMAP folders on the Gmail server. Outlook does not create one IMAP folder called All Mail; however, Outlook will “Subscribe” to all folders including the All Mail folder that Outlook didn’t create with the other IMAP folders. Without the All Mail folder in Outlook’s Navigation pane, a user can’t access that folder with Outlook.
In contrast, the same Gmail account accessed using the iOS Mail app on my iPhone included the All Mail folder among the other IMAP folders it created for the account when the account was setup.
FYI: The All Mail folder contains copies of every email received to that email address. You can clean out (move/delete) all emails in every other IMAP folder (Inbox, Trash, etc.), but all those emails along with all the rest you’ve emails you received since the last time (if ever) emails are manually deleted from that All Mail IMAP folder. The emails in the All Mail folder must be manually deleted if you desire the email deleted from the mail server.
Actions Taken:
Added the All Mail folder to the IMAP folders listed in Outlook. Cycled subscribe/unsubscribe connection to mail server to reset sync. Verified that Outlook settings show it is subscribed to the All Mail folder.
All Mail folder in Outlook does sync with the Gmail server and will display all emails found in that folder on the mail server.
Deleting an email or emails in the Outlook All Mail folder, appears to delete the email(s) in that the emails disappear; however, the emails are not deleted from the mail server. The next time you access that All Mail folder all those “deleted” emails are still there and download again to that folder.
The same emails that won’t delete in the All Mail folder in Outlook were easily deleted using the Mail app on the iPhone. I also verified the emails’ deletion on the Gmail web access to the All Mail folder.
All other IMAP folders (such as Draft, Spam, Trash, etc.) have full sync function such that a deletion of an email in those folders in Outlook does result in deletion of that email in the mail server’s folders. Only in the All Mail folder does the Outlook deletion action not delete the email(s) on the mail server.
I have tried numerous ways to delete emails from this folder including the “permanent” deletion with the Shift key, which works perfectly in the other IMAP folders and even displays the warning about permanent deletion.
I have tried to Purge with various Purge Options.
My research for this revealed this problem has existed with numerous versions of Outlook since 2013 (maybe before) to Microsoft 365. Many of these postings were at Microsoft forums and no solution was ever found and the older threads were closed.
Comment:
I believe that having Outlook not able to actually delete an email from the mail server is by design because Outlook does not create the All Mail IMAP folder with creation of the IMAP account and if the All Mail folder is created and connected to the server it limits its function to only viewing the mail server folder and prevents deletion of emails on the server.
I hope someone that knows how to make Outlook delete the emails in the All Mail folder or at least explain how the All Mail IMAP folder in Outlook can sync enough to download the emails in that folder on the server but unable to delete the emails in the server folder thru that sync which is supposed to be bi-directional.
PS: I transfer all the emails I want to keep to a separate Outlook Data file (PST) on a separate drive. I routinely delete all emails that I don’t want to keep from Outlook and from the Gmail server via the All Mail folder and thus why finding a way to delete the emails from the server from within Outlook would be welcomed.
HTH, Dana:))