The native Apple Mail app on macOS features a built-in housekeeping automation: to prevent your hard drive from filling up with thousands of gigabytes of old newsletters and spam, it automatically permanently deletes any message sitting in your Trash bin after it has been there for one month.
For most people, this is a helpful feature. However, if you are the type of user who treats the “Trash” folder as an archival filing cabinet rather than a garbage can, this automation is a nightmare. If you accidentally swipe to delete an important tax document and assume you can just dig it out of the trash six months later, you will be sorely disappointed to find it permanently wiped from your system.
If you want to maintain absolute control over when your deleted emails are actually purged, you can turn this feature off.
How to Stop Apple Mail from Emptying the Trash
You can change the Trash retention policy directly within the Mail app’s preferences.
- Open the Mail app on your Mac.
- In the top menu bar (next to the Apple logo), click on Mail.
- Select Settings (or Preferences on older versions of macOS) from the drop-down menu.
- In the new window that opens, click on the Accounts tab at the top.
- In the left-hand sidebar, select the email account you want to modify (e.g., your iCloud or Gmail account).
- Click on the Mailbox Behaviors tab on the right side of the window.
- Look for the section labeled “Trash Mailbox” and find the dropdown menu labeled Erase deleted messages:.
- By default, this is likely set to “After one month.” Click the dropdown and change it to Never.
You can now safely close the Settings window. Moving forward, when you hit the delete key, your emails will simply move into the Trash folder and sit there indefinitely until you manually right-click the folder and select “Erase Deleted Items.”