(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
imap_delete — Mark a message for deletion from current mailbox
$imap_stream
, int $msg_number
[, int $options = 0
] )
Marks messages listed in msg_number 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.
imap_streamAn IMAP stream returned by imap_open().
msg_numberThe message number
options
You can set the FT_UID which tells the function
to treat the msg_number argument as an
UID.
Returns TRUE.
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);
?>
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.
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($mbox,'1:*');
to clear out an entire mailbox.
Hope this helps cause it drove me insane for about 5 hours. :)
I couldn't get imap_delete to work when I used it with pop3. Instead i wrote:
<?php
function pop3_dele($connection,$message)
{
$status = imap_setflag_full($connection, '1:'.$message, '\\Deleted');
imap_expunge($connection);
return $status;
//return(imap_delete($connection,trim($message)));
}
?>
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);
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".
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);
?>
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.
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.
// 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='".$_SERVER['PATH_INFO']."' method='POST'>"; ?>
Are you sure to empty trash ?
<p>
<input type="submit" value="Go Ahead" name="DoNow">
<input type="button" value="Cancel" name="Cancel" onClick='javascript:self.history.go(-1)'></form></p>
<?php
} ?>
Just so anyone using this function is aware: if you mark an email to be deleted from a mailbox, that flag does not persist. You need to call imap_expunge() or use the CL_EXPUNGE option with imap_close() to remove the marked email in the same PHP script you marked it in.
I hope this helps someone out.
I think you don't have to give a range to imap_delete() if you want to delete a single one.
This works well:
<?php
imap_delete($conn,trim($msgno));
?>
