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pythonemailgmailimaplib

Python imaplib recover emails with \\Deleted flag and move to trash

I've been getting a lot of spam emails from various colleges. I wrote a simple Python program to go through my emails, and find all the ones whose sender ends in .edu.

Then, to delete it, I though I was supposed to add the \\Deleted flag to those emails using: Gmail.store(id, "+FLAGS", "\\Deleted"). This did not work, and some of them didn't even disappear from the inbox.

After more research, I found that instead I had to use Gmail.store(id, "+X-GM-LABELS", "\\Trash").

So I updated the program to use that, but now it doesn't see any of the emails that I previously added the \\Deleted flag to.

Is there any way I can reset all those emails and then trash them afterward?

Solution

  • They should be in your All Mail folder. Use the WebUI and search for them and trash them, or select the "[Gmail]\All Mail" folder (watch out for localization, this can change name for non-English users).