imap_delete

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

imap_delete — Mark 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.

User Contributed Notes 10 notes

down

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);

down

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".

down

jacky at jackyhome dot myvnc dot com ¶

21 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
} ?>

down

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.

down

Olle ¶

12 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)));
}
?>

down

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.

down

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.

down

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.  :)

down

-1

thisemailaddress at gmail dot com ¶

15 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);



?>

down

-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));    

?>

add a note

imap_delete

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Errors/Exceptions

Changelog

Examples

Notes

See Also

User Contributed Notes 10 notes