Can't find the "Delete forever" button any more

[APB]

Am I overlooking something?  I went to delete a large bunch of messages from Trash(1), and there was no option to do so.  (Choosing Delete has no effect.)  I was sure there used to be a "Delete forever" button, and in fact found reference to it in Gmail Help (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7401) .

Thanks for any suggestions--

--Ann

(1) Yes, I know they will disappear in 30 days, but I wanted to see if permanently deleting several hundred old messages would have any effect on my storage percentage used.  I'm getting to where I will fairly soon have to delete a lot or buy more storage.

[mollys57]

On Apr 11, 11:54 am, APB <apba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Am I overlooking something?  I went to delete a large bunch of messages from
> Trash(1), and there was no option to do so.  (Choosing Delete has no
> effect.)  I was sure there used to be a "Delete forever" button, and in fact
> found reference to it in Gmail Help (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7401) .
>
> Thanks for any suggestions--
> --Ann
>

just looked and for me anyway, it right there to the left of 'report
spam' and the right of the box you can check to select all.
perhaps a clearing of cache and history might restore your delete
forever button?

[David Latapie]

You have to actually be in the trash folder. Being somewhere else and
using the "in:trash" operator doesn't work.

David Latapie
00 33 6 05 00 11 22

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[APB]

Mystery solved:

   The "Delete forever" button disappeared when I appended a search parameter.

   So: Looking at Trash, there is the button. Try to isolate all the XXX-labeled conversations within Trash - no button.

Thanks for the suggestions, though!

--Ann

[Zack (Doc)]

Ann,

I do the same thing, so here's a suggestion that works for me.  Do your search for XXX-labeled conversations and select the ones you want to get rid of (use select READ or UNREAD or STARRED, but not ALL).  Then click the Trash link again, and the items you selected are still selected, but you've got the "Delete Forever" button back.

[l.d.guinchard]

In the label:trash at the top of the list of trashed mails is an
"Empty Trash Now" command; click it; it will ask if you mean it;
you'll click "yes" & voila.

On Apr 11, 11:54 am, APB <apba...@gmail.com> wrote:

[APB]

Hmmm ... this process doesn't seem to be working for me.

1. Go to Trash in the label list. >> Search box reads "in:trash".

2. Add "label:xxx" to search box.  >> Get expected subset of Trash.

3. Select "Unread" from the dropdown in the upper left corner.

4. Click the "Delete" button.  >> Get alert that N messages have been moved to the Trash, but no "Delete forever" button.

What did I do differently from what you do?

--Ann

[APB]

Thanks, but I didn't want to delete *all* of the messages in Trash, just some of them.  I didn't make that explicit before.

--Ann

[Andy]

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 20:32, APB <apb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hmmm ... this process doesn't seem to be working for me.

1. Go to Trash in the label list. >> Search box reads "in:trash".

2. Add "label:xxx" to search box.  >> Get expected subset of Trash.

3. Select "Unread" from the dropdown in the upper left corner.

4. Click the "Delete" button.  >> Get alert that N messages have been moved to the Trash, but no "Delete forever" button.

Gmail does things a little "interestingly" sometimes.

When you click on a label in the label list, it is not the same thing as typing search parameters into the Search box, even though it might look the same and the Search box displays the same thing.

You only get the "Delete forever" button when you click on the Trash in the label list, because you are going directly to the (entire) Trash.

The moment you do anything with the Search box and click "Search Mail", you are effectively telling Gmail to go somewhere else (even though it might be the same place).  Then the "Delete forever" button is not displayed.

The "Delete forever" button probably disappeared in your step 2 above.

Yes, it is an oddity in the way Gmail behaves.

What you could do is go through steps 1-3, highlight the ones you want deleted, THEN go back to step 1 again and your "Delete forever" button is back and the highlighted messages are still highlighted.

Andy

[APB]

Your suggestion does work, but because I had invoked a search, only 20 conversation were shown per page after step 2. I had to select the Unread from those 20, repeat for the second page of results, etc.  They were all still highlighted when I went back to Trash via the label list, but it was a tedious way to get there. 

Speaking of tedious, I decided shortly after posting the original message that it made much more sense to just pay for more storage than to spend the time trying to recoup storage from my account!  But it is always good to learn more about how Gmail works.

--Ann

[Zack (Doc)]

Thank you Andy for clarifying what I was trying to say.  I find keyboard shortcuts ("sr" or "su" to select the unread/read) combined with mouse clicks (on "older/oldest"), makes it go pretty quick.

[tastelife twice]

my workaround for this...

looks elaborate, tho it's actually fairly simple, making use of the ol' "switcheroo" technique. can save gobs of time, depending on the amount of emails you'd need to wade thru.  just, don't miss any steps... PLEASE!

1)  PREPARE TEMP LABELS

     a)  create label named _FakeDeleteForever 

     b)  create label named _FakeTrash

     *the underscore floats them near the top of the folders list for ease of access

2)  SELECT TRASHED EMAILS TO DELETE FOREVER, AND PLACE IN _FakeDeleteForever AND Inbox

     a)  go to Trash and search via label or other operators

             i.e. in:trash from:"Points of Light or in:trash label:Points-of-Light

     b)  click box to Select All

     c)  click link: Select all conversations that match this search

     d)  apply label _FakeDeleteForever

     e)  again, tick the box to Select All

     f)  again, click link: Select all conversations that match this search

     g)  this time, click button: Move to Inbox

3)  NOT SATISFIED?

     repeat all parts of Step Two for any subsequent searches for mail to delete forever

CONGRAT!  now all the emails to delete forever are in Inbox, but also in their own designated label

4)  GET THE REMAINING TRASH OUT OF THE WAY BY PLACING IN _FakeTrash AND Inbox

     a)  go to Trash

     b)  tick the box to Select All

     c)  click link: Select all N conversations in Trash, where N is the number of emails in the Trash

     d)  apply label _FakeTrash

     e)  again, tick the box to Select All

     f)  click link: Select all N conversations in Trash

     g)  click button: Move to Inbox

     *now all the mail you want to keep in the trash are in your inbox but also in their own designated label

5)  DELETE YOUR EMAILS FOREVER... FOR REALS

     a)  click the label _FakeDeleteForever from the labels list on left

     b)  select all emails in the folder, using the Select All tick box-and-link process similarly described above

     c)  click Trash Can button to send them to Trash

     d)  click Trash label in labels list on left

     e)  select all emails in the folder, using the Select All tick box-and-link process

     f)  click button Delete Forever

6)  DARLING, WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE OUT THE FAKE TRASH?

     a)  click the label _FakeTrash from the labels list on left

     b)  select all emails in the folder, using the Select All tick box-and-link process

     c)  click Trash Can button to send them to Trash

     d)  click Trash label in labels list on left to verifiy your emails are in Trash

7)  DELETE TEMP LABELS (unless you plan to use this process again in the near future)

     a)  hover over _FakeTrash label in list on left

     b)  when the down arrow (triangle) on the right of the label appears, click it

     c)  when the context menu appears, click Remove label and then click to confirm

     d)  repeat steps a - c to delete _FakeDeleteForever label, similarly

BUTTER MY BUTT AND CALL ME A BISCUIT!   YOU HAVE OUTSMARTED EVEN GOOGLE.

*note: if i select more than ~1500 messages at once, my gMail hangs. that's possibly just my crappy notebook mucking things up, but i can't can say, either way.