This article applies to Mac Mail users who are using the POP protocol and wish to set or change how long your email remains on the server. Please note that if you are using IMAP protocol, this setting is not relevant as your email is always saved on the server.
If you wish to adjust how long emails are saved on the server:
By default, when you download new messages using Mac Mail, your messages will remain on the hosted server for one week. After one week, they will be deleted from the server. This helps you to avoid exceeding your accounts storage limits. Follow the directions below to make changes to the default settings.
- Select Mail > Preferences
- Click the Accounts tab, located at the top of the window. It should be selected by default
- Click once on your account, as it appears in the Accounts list
- Click the Special Mailboxes, here you can set how long emails are stored on the server depending on type. E.g. sent, junk and trash. Be sure to set a reasonable value if it's too high you may eventually fill up your mail box in which case no new emails will be accepted until some room is made
- Click the Advanced tab. Look for Remove copy from server after retrieving a message. Here you can select how often emails should be removed from the server, by default it's after one week. You can select from immediately after an email is downloaded - one day, one week, one month or never
- Close the Accounts window
- When prompted to save your changes, click the Save button
