Cannot Delete Apple Mail Mailboxes 'On my Mac"

[HelpWanted]

I have tried deleting these mailboxes multiple times in multiple ways, but, no matter what I do, they just keep reappearing.


I have 1) right-clicked and deleted them multiple times; 2) I have deleted them through Finder; 3) I disabled my email accounts and tried to delete the mailboxes (which some have had success with apparently); 4) I changed mailbox behavior by un-clicking and then re-clicking the put deleted emails into trash box (which some suggested online).


I have no idea what to do next. I am speaking with Apple, but I thought I would try here to find a solution to this aggravating problem.


Thank you.

 

[pm-r]

You will probably get some better help replies if you add what Mac, OS X your are using and whether your email accounts are POP or IMAP and if you're using other iDevices and maybe even the ISP you're using etc. i.e.: provide more details.

 

[HelpWanted]

You will probably get some better help replies if you add what Mac, OS X your are using and whether your email accounts are POP or IMAP and if you're using other iDevices and maybe even the ISP you're using etc. i.e.: provide more details.

I use Mac OS 10.11.6. I have several online counts (all IMAP) from different providers, and my ISP is local. These particular mailboxes are located on my local drive and are not online.

 

[IWT]

@HelpWanted

If you are talking about a Mailbox immediately below the Mailboxes heading, that is Mailboxes such as Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Junk, Trash etc; these are native to the account that they relate to.

As far as I know, you can delete the content, but not the Mailbox unless you also delete the account to which they are associated.

That is: Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Highlight Account > Click on Minus sign

Ian

 

[HelpWanted]

No, these are not mailboxes linked to an account. These are mailboxes that I imported into Apple Mail. So they should not be native to an account.

 

[ferrarr]

Here is an Apple Support page for Mail on El Capitan, https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22308?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Look for the "Delete a Mailbox" link. Let us know if it helps.

 

[HelpWanted]

OK I figured this out.

When I imported messages from Thunderbird to Apple Mail, I initially converted them to mbox files. Then I imported them in Apple Mail via the Apple Mail Import feature. I made the mistake of including mbox files that were linked to IMAP accounts. After hours of trying to delete, I tried the suggestion above. I deleted every internet account including iCloud. Then I deleted the imported mailboxes that were linked to IMAP accounts. That worked, and the self-recreating mail boxes are now gone.

 

[HelpWanted]

I am on to the next problem which seems independent of the self-recreating mailbox problem. My Apple Mail intermittently does not start and hangs. It's just frozen. Right now after waiting fifteen minutes, it started to work. I'll start a new thread.

 

[HelpWanted]

And thank you for your help. The response about accounts made me think, and I was able to come up with an idea that for some reason worked.