Question

I have a java program that acts as a POP3 client using javax.mail. I am able to list and retrieve the contents of a Gmail inbox no problem. However, I cannot seem to delete emails. Here is the (important parts of the) code:

POP3Store sto=... another method creates and connects the POP3Store
Folder ibx=sto.getFolder("INBOX");
ibx.open(Folder.READ_WRITE);

Message[] msgarr=ibx.getMessages();

for(int mi=0; mi<msgarr.length; mi++) {
    ...do stuff with the message
    msgarr[mi].setFlag(Flags.Flag.DELETED, true);
    }
ibx.close(true); //folder.close(true) indicates to expunge the folder
sto.close();

After running this and seeing it handle each message, I go into Gmail and the emails are still there, and even showing as unread. If I re-run the java client, it will see and handle the same emails.

This same code happily deletes emails from an exchange server.

How can I get Gmail to delete emails?

Answer 1

Gmail handles POP deletion specially.

You can configure what Gmail should do when a message is deleted through POP in Gmail Settings, on the Forwarding and POP / IMAP tab.