imap_delete

erational (2013-03-25 02:26:26)

the function is using the message number (and not the uid !)
$uid = $mail->uid;
$msgno = $mail->msgno;
if you want to use the uid, simply option value
imap_delete($mbox, $uid, FT_UID);

Olle (2012-11-01 07:46:47)

I couldn't get imap_delete to work when I used it with pop3. Instead i wrote:
<?php
function pop3_dele($connection,$message)
{
    $status = imap_setflag_full($connection, '1:'.$message, '\\Deleted');
    imap_expunge($connection);
    return $status;

    //return(imap_delete($connection,trim($message)));
}
?>

thisemailaddress at gmail dot com (2009-09-23 10:48:18)

In case you feel the need to kill all emails from before a certain year on your Gmail account, this would work:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL ^ (E_NOTICE | E_WARNING));

echo "parsing ini file...\n";
$ini = parse_ini_file('g.ini');
$user = $ini['user'];
$pass = $ini['pass'];
$year = $ini['year'];
echo "account {$user} - killing msgs from before {$year}\n\n";

echo "connecting...\n";
$imap = imap_open("{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}[Gmail]/All Mail", $user, $pass) or die("can't connect: " . imap_last_error() . "\n");

echo "checking current mailbox...\n";
$mbox = imap_check($imap);

echo "fetching overview...\n";
$flaggedForDelete = 0;
for($n = 0; $n < $mbox->Nmsgs; $n++) {
    echo "processing {$n} of {$mbox->Nmsgs}...\r";
    $hdr = imap_fetchheader($imap, $n);
    preg_match('/^Date: (.*?)$/m', $hdr, $matches);
    $date = date_parse(strtotime($matches[1]));
    if($date['year'] < $year) {
        imap_delete($imap, $msg->msgno);
        $flaggedForDelete++;
    }
}

echo "expunging mailbox ({$flaggedForDelete} messages flagged)... ";
echo ((imap_expunge($imap)) ? "ok" : "failed!")."\n";
imap_close($imap);

?>

Alex (2009-04-23 12:00:42)

I think you don't have to give a range to imap_delete() if you want to delete a single one. 

This works well:

<?php

imap_delete($conn,trim($msgno));    

?>

chris at financialservicesonline dot com dot au (2009-01-28 15:54:33)

After a little experimentation i found out how to mark a single message for deletion...

<?php

$msgid = '5'; //For example

imap_delete($mbox, "$msgid:$msgid");

?>

imap_delete() seems to want a range, so to select one, simply range from your id to your id.

Hope this helps.

iwantsimplelife at lycos dot com (2009-01-12 01:40:02)

Somehow, when ever I try to delete an email using the message number returned by imap_header, any email with a message number below 999 will fail.
I discovered that the imap_header will pad the message number with spaces. You will need to trim the number before calling imap_delete.
I am using qmail and it took me over a month to figure it out.
Hope this will be helpful to some poor soul out there facing the same problem.

jacky at jackyhome dot myvnc dot com (2003-11-09 13:42:16)

// is not a complete code but enough to clear out an entire mailbox.
// hope this can save your time :-)

<?php

if (isset($_REQUEST['DoNow'])) 
{
  # PULL ADDITIONAL FILES
  include_once ("common.php");
  
  $conn = @imap_open("\{$server/$serverType}Trash", $user, $pass) 
  or die("Connection to folder failed");
  
  $headers = @imap_check($conn);
  ($headers->Nmsgs > 0) or die("Trash is empty already !");
  
  // delete email(s)
  @imap_delete($conn,'1:*');   // to clear out an entire mailbox.
  @imap_expunge($conn);
  echo "Trash is empty."; 
  
  imap_close($conn);
} 
else
{
  echo "<form name='formA' action='".$_SERVER['PATH_INFO']."' method='POST'>"; ?>
  Are you sure to empty trash ?
  <p>
  <input type="submit" value="Go Ahead" name="DoNow">&nbsp;
  <input type="button" value="Cancel" name="Cancel" onClick='javascript:self.history.go(-1)'></form></p>
<?php
} ?>

James G (2003-04-09 21:05:20)

I had some major issues deleting emails using this function. Using IIS 5.0 and a win based Mail Server, I could not delete the emails individually.
My script merely needed to check the emails and update the database for bounce backs, after which I simply wanted to erase all emails.
If imap_delete($mbox,$email->MsgNo) just isnt working for you, you can try using
imap_delete($mbox,'1:*');
to clear out an entire mailbox.
Hope this helps cause it drove me insane for about 5 hours. :)