Unable to delete trash in Mail App

[Shelbyw7]

I am unable to delay trash email using the Apple Mail app. It just keeps coming back....Using the connection doctor the SMTP shows connection to server succeeded, but the IMAP login failed.

I am having no problem using gmail, and I have changed my gmail password thinking that that would help, but it didn't. I would like to get rid of these old emails on Apple Mail.

I am running Catalina version 10.15.7. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[chscag]

If your IMAP login has failed, you will not be able to delete those emails. Have you tried going direct to the gmail server and delete them from there? Gmail keeps trashed email for 30 days before removing it but you can delete it immediately from the server side. Just select "empty trash now".

I just checked with gmail to make sure what I stated about keeping trash mail for 30 days is still valid and it is.
So that might be why you're seeing the trashed mail from your Apple Mail app.

With an IMAP account, Apple Mail is going to show what the server shows.

 

[Shelbyw7]

Thank you so much for your response. Unfortunately these emails are over 30 days old.....Can you possible tell me how I can get the IMAP connection failure corrected? I think maybe if I can get that corrected that I will be able to delete these old emails.

 

[chscag]

I can see that if you can't get access to your IMAP account, then the Trash folder on your Mac will not reflect what the server shows.

Gmail account help in my opinion is not very much help. You can try their help to see if it has anything that you might be overlooking to get your log in to work again.

Once you log in and the connection is good, those Trashed emails should go away because they no longer exist on the server side.

The last desperate thing to try is remove the account and create it again. If you decide on that, be sure to copy all your email that you wish to save to local folders on your Mac. If you don't, once the account is deleted it will also delete the mail.