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Help · New in 0.1.15

Trash and Spam

In Trash and Spam, the buttons change to what you need there: delete for good, or put the mail back in your Inbox.

Windows, web and phone
In Trash: Delete forever, or Move to Inbox.

In Trash

Select one or more messages, or open one. Above them you see two buttons:

  • Delete forever removes the mail from your mail server at once. A note says “Conversation deleted forever”. This can’t be undone. Pressing the Delete key in Trash does the same.
  • Move to Inbox puts the mail back in your Inbox. A note says “Moved to Inbox”, with Undo if you change your mind.

In Spam

  • Delete forever works just as it does in Trash: at once, and it can’t be undone.
  • Not spam moves the mail to your Inbox. A note says “Marked as not spam”, with Undo. You also find Not spam when you right-click a message in Spam.

Bottle Mail has no spam filter of its own. Some mail servers notice when you move mail out of Spam, and use it to sort your mail better next time.

Empty Trash or Spam in one go

Deleting everything always asks first.
  1. Open Trash or Spam.
  2. Above the list, select Empty Trash now, or Delete all spam messages now in Spam.
  3. Bottle Mail asks first: “This can’t be undone.” Select Delete to go ahead, or Cancel to keep your mail.

The same question appears when you select all the messages in the folder (“Select all” followed by the number) and choose Delete forever. Messages you pick one by one are deleted at once, without the question.

Clean up after 30 days

You can let Bottle Mail delete old mail in Trash and Spam for you. It is off until you turn it on.

  1. Open Settings, then Accounts.
  2. Under the account, turn on Delete messages in Trash and Spam after 30 days.

Good to know:

  • The 30 days count from when this PC first sees a message in Trash or Spam. So for the first 30 days after you turn it on, nothing is deleted.
  • It runs in the app on this PC, while the app is open.
  • It deletes from your mailbox on the mail server, so the mail is also gone in webmail and on your phone.
  • When the clean-up covers all the mail you are looking at, the top of Trash and Spam says so.
  • Gmail already does this on its own servers, so a Gmail account shows a line saying so instead of a switch.

In the web app

The web app has the same buttons, and the same Empty Trash now and Delete all spam messages now links. It has no 30-day clean-up of its own, because it keeps nothing after you sign out.

On your phone

Open Trash or Spam from the folder list. The bar at the bottom of an open message has Delete forever and Move to Inbox (in Trash) or Not spam (in Spam). Swipe a message to the right to move it back to your inbox, or to the left to delete it for ever.

Touch and hold a message to select several, then use the same buttons in the bar. Empty Trash now and Delete all spam messages now sit at the top of the list and ask first.

Questions

Can I get a deleted message back?

Not after Delete forever. The message is removed from your mail server, so no app can bring it back. Until then, anything in Trash or Spam can go back with Move to Inbox or Not spam.

Why did my mail come back before?

In 0.1.14 and earlier, deleting a message that was already in Trash didn’t remove it from the mail server. It disappeared from the list, then came back the next time the list loaded. Version 0.1.15 fixes this: Delete forever now deletes it on the server, and Bottle Mail checks that it worked.

What if the mail server refuses to delete something?

Bottle Mail tries again. If the server keeps refusing, a note tells you, and the messages show in the list again, so nothing goes missing without you knowing.

Is it the same as blocking a sender?

No. Blocking sends a sender’s future mail to Trash. Trash and Spam are where you decide what to keep and what to delete for good.