Just so confused! HELP PLEASE!!

[#1]

Hi

I would really appreciate some help working out what's going on with my emails.

I am getting the mailbox size reaching limits email, but I cannot seem to delete my emails. On my Mac the seem to delete to Bin, which I delete, but then on my phone it starts to download 3000+ email when I open one of my IMAP folders!

I tried deleting the account from the Mac, but when I ad it again it says its downloading nearly 6000 emails, which takes a while. I then cannot find them in my IMAP folders???! 

Also dragging emails to folders I have set up that store on my Mac used to work fine for years, but now they don't seem to move over, but disappear for a while before reappearing where they once were!

Just don't know what to do. 

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[#2]

Just to add, WebMail seems unable to open these folders now (just freezes), I assume as there are just so many emails in them!

[#3]

I just took the account offline, then back online (Mail, on my Mac), and another 2000+ emails are downloading somewhere!

[#4]

Whatever you do in one device will be reflected on all devices.

DELETE is performed as a move to the trash folder ... Which will be sync'd on all IMAP clients.If

You need to ensure that the webmail client has subscribed to all folders - see the folder management options - cog icon bottom left.

Culling mailbox contents

If you need to clean out your mailbox, may be because it is over quota, then as well as tidying up the inbox, you need to also look at the SENT ITEMS folder and then afterwards clear out the TRASH folder. However some times webmail performance can make this process very tedious, particularly if the delete action (actually a move to the trash folder) fails.

If you primarily want to delete emails, you can mitigate delete performance issues by doing an "immediate" delete (rather than a move to trash for deletion later) by holding down the SHIFT key when pressing the DEL key. This works in both webmail and most PC based email clients. WARNING SHIFT+DEL is not recoverable so be certain absolutely, that you do not need the email before pressing the buttons!

Alternatively, in webmail (Round Cube) Settings -> Server Settings there are some options worth exploring controlling how deletes are performed...

1. Flag the message for deletion instead of delete
2. If moving messages to "Deleted Items" fails, permanently delete them
3. Compact Inbox on logout

Setting these options and using them together will avoid the over heads of moving items to the trash folder when you wish to delete them. They will simply be greyed out and remain in the inbox list. After logging out of webmail, they will then be removed from the mailbox.

Whilst this might be highly proficient, it needs to be used with care, for when they are gone, they are gone. Note also that Plusnet house-keeping clears out the trash folder weekly.