Apple•iPhone & Mobile•iPhone Problems•iPhone Tips•Tips and Tricks

Are you getting the message, “Unable to move message to trash” when you try to delete an email on your iPhone?

January 17, 2015 by Ian Brown No Comments

Does this message look familiar to you?

unable-to-move-trash

A friend of mine had this same issue, and it was driving him nuts!

He couldn’t delete an email. He would delete it, the email would disappear, and then a few seconds later the above error message would pop up!

So I did a quick search on the net and found the following fix, which worked like a charm!

  1. Click on SETTINGS
  2. Scroll down and click on MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS
  3. Tap the email account you’re having issues with
  4. Scroll down to the bottom and click on ADVANCED (if you can’t see the ADVANCED button, then you’ll need to delete your email account from your iPhone and then add it again to your iPhone manually)
  5. Scroll down until you see “IMAP Path Prefix /” and tap it (if you can’t see “IMAP Path Prefix /”, then you’ll need to delete your email account from your iPhone and then add it again to your iPhone manually)
  6. Enter INBOX in all capital letters so it now reads “IMAP Path Prefix INBOX”
  7. Click ACCOUNT in the upper left
  8. Click DONE in the upper right
  9. Click MAIL in the upper left
  10. Click SETTINGS in the upper left
  11. Click the home button on your iPhone to close SETTINGS
  12. Re-open MAIL and delete your emails to your heart’s content!
ITEMS OF NOTE

 
NOTE I: This issue only happens with email IMAP servers. If you’re using a POP3 email mailbox, this will not be an issue for you.

NOTE II: This fix will NOT work for email accounts that are with the following email services, because Microsoft does not use IMAP. It uses Exchange Active Link (EAS).

  • Hotmail.com
  • Live.com
  • Outlook.com

If the email account that you are having this issue with is with one of the above email providers, here are two fixes you can try:

  • Access your outlook.com or hotmail.com email account with your Safari browser
  • Configure your email for POP3

This should work if you use Microsoft Exchange servers like Office365.

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Written by Ian Brown
Ian has been involved with computers since very young. He took his first computer class when he was just 8 years old. He always had an affinity for computers, but never really took it seriously. It was not until he graduated from college and experienced the real world for a while did he realize that computers may be where his talent and passion lie. He has since branched out into Internet marketing and LOVES it. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he services clients ranging from residential to small business to celebrities.