PROBLEM
Error message when trying to delete a message from iPad or iPhone:
Unable to move message. The message could not be moved to the Trash.
THIS FIX DOES NOT WORK WITH HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS
Hotmail is NOT IMAP, it used EAS and does not offer these options. To fix Hotmail the account needs to be removed fully and then setup as an "Outlook.com" email in the iOS Mail setup.)
SOLUTION
Navigate to your email account's settings
- Go To Settings (Gear icon).
- iOS 9 and earlier: Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
- iOS 10: Tap Mail.
- iOS 11: Tap Accounts and Passwords.
- Select your email account.
- Tap the "Account" line to pull up the settings sheet.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Advanced (At the very bottom. You may need to hide the keyboard to see this.)
Set up Mailbox Behaviors to store message in the correct folders "On The Server"
- Under the "Mailbox Behaviors" section, select "Drafts Mailbox"
- In the new window, select the "Drafts" folder from the "On the Server" section. You should see a check mark next to this folder. Do NOT check the "On My iPhone" "Drafts" selection at the top.
- Tap the "Advanced" button on the top left to go back to the advanced page.
- Repeat this process for the "Deleted Mailbox" and "Sent Mailbox", selecting the corresponding "On The Server" mailboxes. With Gmail accounts, you will also have the ability to map an "Archive Mailbox", which can be linked to the "All Mail" mailbox.
Back Out to Complete the Changes
- Tap the "Advanced" button on the top left.
- Tap on "Account Info".
- Tap "DONE" (do not tap Cancel).
You may need to then completely shut down, and then turn your iPhone back on.
Comments
82 comments
It worked, nice work fellas.
Excellent Clear Instructions. Thank You Very Much for taking the time to write this.
Not even Apple technical support could figure this out. It works 100%.
I'm getting this error message on my iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1 with a POP3 account. I see the settings to which you refer in my IMAP accounts but my POP account doesn't even give me the option to specify mailboxes. To attempt a resolution I changed my account to IMAP but I'd really like to know why POP3 is dysfunctional.
We do not recommend using POP accounts. IMAP is best. More information here:
https://forgetcomputers.zendesk.com/entries/34873-email-hosting-imap-vs-pop
After spending the whole morning trouble shooting my iphone problem with apple support (no sound for incoming emails) I finally got it working after deleting my accounts and re entering them multiple times, only to find out i could no longer delete messages. They couldn't help me on this, so i searched on the web and found this easy, step by step advice. Works perfect now! Thanks so much.
Thanks for the feedback Andrea. Glad we could help!
What a star you are! I was slowly losing what's left of my mind over this but back to some semblance of normality now. Thank you!
Thank you so much. Worked on iPad and iPhone.
Useful info for users in Mexico! thanks
Hi there,
This didn't work for me. I have 2 messages that will not delete. When I go into Drafts Mailbox and when I look for the Sent Mailbox is it greyed out unless I go down into my other folders where I see sent-mail and SentMail and I have tried choosing those and finish the instructions, power down but there are 2 messages that will still not delete. I have tried this a few times. Thanks,
Update - so I was actually able to get rid of 1 of the messages - what I hadn't done is follow the instructions for both my ipad and iPhone - once I did that it worked. What is really strange is that I have a second message that it will not work for? I still get the same message "Unable to Move Message....??
Hi Jackie,
Try accessing your email online and see if you can delete the message there. Gray folders are also something you probably want to delete.
If you have multiple folders with similar names (sent-mail and SentMail) then...
Good luck!
Hi Ben,
Thanks so much for all of your help. I went on-line and did some clean up and things seem to be working great now.
Hey Ben,
Thanks a lot! Keep up the good work!!
My iPhone 4S was retaining a single email that wouldn't allow itself to be deleted no matter what I did. But the following did work:
Log into "Settings" > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > (your email account) > Advanced > Remove >
The default is "after one week", but change it to "after one day".
If the message you want to delete is older than a day, it can then be deleted simply by tapping your trash can icon when the persistent email is on your screen.
You can then change it back to "after one week" if you like.
Thanks for sharing, Meriam!
If you've been helped by this article, we'd really appreciate a positive review on Apple's site.
I do not have the "advanced" option at the bottom of my screen. How esle can I get to this??
Hi JMN,
What type of email account are you running? Not all email will have this option. IMAP and iCloud will have the "Advanced" option. Microsoft Exchange (ActiveSync) will not because it is not required (the folders are automatically mapped appropriately). I have not tested POP accounts (we also do not recommended POP :).
Hi Ben - thanks very much for the reply. I am using Exchange. Any ideas on how to get rid of these messages?
JMN, if "mark as read" (then delete) doesn't work, then contact your Exchange Host or IT Support provider. There's no reason why this should be a problem.
Ok, so I get to this point In the new window, select the "Sent Mailbox" folder. From the "On the Server" listing in the lower portion of the window, select the "Sent" folder. You should see a check mark next to this folder. And I do NOT get a check mark next to "Sent". Now what do I do????
Hi Joe, so you can see the folder you want to sync, but it's not selectable?
Yes that is the issue, it's there, but I can't select it. I can get that cool little check mark on just about everything EXCEPT that folder. I do truly hate technology :)
Are these applicable to iPhone 5 as well? I went through these steps & found my settings to already be as suggested. The message that I am trying to delete does not show up when I check my email on a computer, or on my iPad, just my iPhone. Suggestions?
Hi KMR,
Yes, these instructions are applicable to all iPhones.
In addition to running through these instructions a second time to double-check the process, also ensure your software is up-to-date (Settings > General > Software Update). Try restarting your iPhone. From the list view in Mail, try Edit > Select the mail message to delete > Choose Delete. Try deleting one at a time (vs a group).
Thank you for your response. I double-checked the process and my phone is not allowing this step:
"In the new window, select the "Sent Mailbox" folder. From the "On the Server" listing in the lower portion of the window, select the "Sent" folder. You should see a check mark next to this folder. Do NOT check the "On My iPhone" "Sent" selection at the top. "
I only have the Drafts Mailbox or Deleted Mailbox. When I click on Drafts, "Drafts" is what it goes to and there is no option of selecting the "Sent Mailbox" folder in order to select "On the Server" for my "sent mailbox". Any ideas on that?
I have ensured that my software is up-to-date, I have restarted my iPhone (multiple times) and I have also tried deleting the message as you described (also multiple times).
Hi KMR,
To confirm, using a screen grab (see below) from the video as a reference, your iPhone does NOT show a "Sent" folder "On the Server", correct?
If that is the case, try this...
Hi Ben~
I ended up deleting the email account & adding it back & got it to work that way. I appreciate your help very much! Thank you! :)
Hi KMR, Great to hear you got it working, and thank you for sharing the solution!
Please sign in to leave a comment.