imap_delete

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

imap_deleteMark a message for deletion from current mailbox

Description

imap_delete(IMAP\Connection $imap, string $message_nums, int $flags = 0): true

Marks messages listed in message_nums for deletion. Messages marked for deletion will stay in the mailbox until either imap_expunge() is called or imap_close() is called with the optional parameter CL_EXPUNGE.

Parameters

imap

An IMAP\Connection instance.

message_nums

A string representing one or more messages in IMAP4-style sequence format ("n", "n:m", or combination of these delimited by commas).

flags

You can set the FT_UID which tells the function to treat the message_nums argument as a UID.

Return Values

Always returns true.

Errors/Exceptions

Throws a ValueError if flags is invalid.

Changelog

Version Description
8.1.0 The imap parameter expects an IMAP\Connection instance now; previously, a valid imap resource was expected.
8.0.0 A ValueError is now thrown on invalid flags parameter values. Previously, a warning was emitted and the function returned false.

Examples

Example #1 imap_delete() example

<?php

$mbox
= imap_open("{imap.example.org}INBOX", "username", "password")
or die(
"Can't connect: " . imap_last_error());

$check = imap_mailboxmsginfo($mbox);
echo
"Messages before delete: " . $check->Nmsgs . "<br />\n";

imap_delete($mbox, 1);

$check = imap_mailboxmsginfo($mbox);
echo
"Messages after delete: " . $check->Nmsgs . "<br />\n";

imap_expunge($mbox);

$check = imap_mailboxmsginfo($mbox);
echo
"Messages after expunge: " . $check->Nmsgs . "<br />\n";

imap_close($mbox);
?>

Notes

Note:

IMAP mailboxes may not have their message flags saved between connections, so imap_expunge() should be called during the same connection in order to guarantee that messages marked for deletion will actually be purged.

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 10 notes

up
7
erational
11 years ago
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);
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4
rueda dot raul at gmail dot com
10 years ago
This function seems not to work on "[Gmail]/All Mail" mailbox. This is because Gmails keeps only one copy of the message and mailboxes are no more than labels.
Deleting a message from a mailbox only removes that label (except for "All Mail" mailbox).
To delete from "All Mail" you have to use imap_mail_move() function and move the message to "[Gmail]/Trash" mailbox.

Note: Names of mailboxes in Gmail depends on the language you're using. E.g.: in Spanish "All Mail" is "Todos" and "Trash" is "Papelera".
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1
jacky at jackyhome dot myvnc dot com
20 years ago
// 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
} ?>
up
1
Daniel Dafoe
8 years ago
Just so anyone using this function is aware: if you mark an email to be deleted from a mailbox, that flag does not persist. You need to call imap_expunge() or use the CL_EXPUNGE option with imap_close() to remove the marked email in the same PHP script you marked it in.

I hope this helps someone out.
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0
Olle
11 years ago
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)));
}
?>
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0
chris at financialservicesonline dot com dot au
15 years ago
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.
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0
iwantsimplelife at lycos dot com
15 years ago
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.
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0
James G
21 years ago
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. :)
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-1
thisemailaddress at gmail dot com
14 years ago
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);

?>
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-3
Alex
15 years ago
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));

?>
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