How to Delete Emails And Attachments on Mac Efficiently?

Amy Dennis

Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: Recover Emails • Proven solutions

Are you a Mac user and using the Mail application? Is your mailbox filled with lots of emails? In this case, it will be better for you to delete the inbox to make the emails and files manageable. If you are searching for a quick and effective way on how to manage emails and attachments in your Mail. Then this article is designed for you. You will learn about how to delete emails and attachments on Mac. More importantly, if you unintentionally delete your emails and attachments, you can regain the data through a powerful data recovery software. Scroll to find out all the details.

Part 1. How to Delete Mail Emails on Mac?

If you are noticing your storage space in Mac is decreasing as your emails and attachments are piling up, then start deleting your emails. But how to clear mail storage on Mac? You can delete one by one or multiple mails together.

Tip 1 Delete single email

If you are looking to delete email one by one, then follow the below procedure:

Step 1- Open the mail app and go to your inbox. Select the message that you need to delete.

Step 2- You can see a delete button in the main toolbar. Click on it or move your pointer to the message header and then click the delete button that is appearing over there.

After deletion, your email moves to the trash folder.

Tip 2 Delete multiple emails

If you do not require more than one mail and like deleting them altogether, then proceed as follows:

Select the messages in the Mail app and click the delete button from the toolbar. Then all the selected messages will be deleted together.

You can use the filter to search and delete the messages received from a specific person or look for the emails of particular dates.

Tip 3 Delete all emails

What if you want to delete all emails on Mac? To empty the Mac mail is also workable.

Step 1- Open your Mail software in Mac operating system.

Step 2- Find "Inbox" in the sidebar.

Step 3- Arouse the “Edit” menu> choose “Select All”. The action will help Mail to select all emails in the mail box.

Step 4- Arouse the "Edit" top menu again> press "delete" button. Then all the emails will be wiped into trash bin.

Tip 4 View deleted emails

Sometimes you delete vital emails accidentally. Here your chosen mail preferences can help to view and regain your deleted emails.

Step 1- Open your mail app and click on "Preferences" and then "Accounts."

Step 2- After selecting the mail account, click on "Mailbox Behaviours" and then look for the settings of "Trash Mailbox." Here if the "mailbox" is specified, it allows you to view all the deleted emails in Trash. Now you can drag your required mail back to the mailbox.

But if nothing is specified here, you can not get back your deleted messages. Because the deleted messages do not go to the trash box and get's deleted permanently.

Tip 5 Permanently delete emails

But before taking actions, you should be noted:

Step 1- Select "mailbox" and click on "erase deleted items" and then select the account.

Step 2- Control-click on "Trash" mailbox from the mail sidebar and click on " Erase Deleted Items."

Part 2. How to Delete Mail Attachments on Mac?

Delete Mail attachments in Message

You can delete mail attachments with the in-built "remove attachments option." This option deletes attachments from both Mac and the server of the email service.

Step 1- Open the "Mail app" and select the email from which you need to delete attachments.

Step 2- Click the "Message" menu located in the menu bar and select "Remove attachment."

If looking for each email with an attachment seems tough to you, then you can use a filter to find all the emails with attachments.

Remove Mac Mail attachments in Finder manually

You can delete the mail attachments from the server with the following steps:

Step 1: Click on "Finder" and then go to Menu -> Folder

Step 2: Type the below path and click on Mail Downloads and then on "Go"

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/

In the data library option, you can find the "Mail Downloads" and click on "Go"

This opens the "Finder" window, and you can see all the downloaded mail attachments here in the folder- "Mails Downloads." If you like to delete all the downloads from your email, you need to drag all the available folders in the "Mails Downloads" folder. But if you do not wish to delete all the stored data, then you need to open each folder in the "Mails Downloads" folder to find out what's there in it. This may take hours. However, the attachments are also stored in the subfolders of the V6 folder on this path - > ~/Library/Mail

Part 3. How to Recover Deleted Outlook Emails And Attachments from Mac?

While deleting Outlook emails and attachments, sometimes you accidentally delete some of the important attachments or email messages. Then you start wondering how do I recover permanently deleted Outlook emails on my Mac?

If you also come across such a situation, Wondershare Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac helps you recover your deleted emails and attachments in three easy steps:

Step 1 Select Location

Download and launch Recoverit on your Mac and select the location from where you have lost data. After choosing the location, click the "Start" button and begin the scan.

Step 2 Scan The Location

After starting the scan, you can also make some filters to search for the lost emails or attachments through the file path or type. You can even stop or pause your scan in-between if your lost data is found.

If your lost attachments or emails are not found with the standard scan, you can even proceed with the "advanced video recovery." This feature performs a more in-depth scan to search for your deleted emails or attachments.

Step 3 Preview And Recover Data

Once the scan completes, Recoverit allows you to preview all the recovered files. This feature assures you that you have recovered your required files. After verifying the attachments or emails, select the targeted ones, and recover them back by clicking on the "Recover" button.

One thing that needs to be mentioned here is that you should not save the data on the same path or drive from where you have lost them. Always select a different path, as choosing the same path increases the chances of being data overwritten.

With this step, your data recovery completes, and Recoverit gives you access to all your deleted or lost files.

The Bottom Line

While accessing your mail app on Mac, when you feel like you have many unimportant emails or attachments in your folder, then try to delete them. You can either delete emails one by one or can delete multiple emails together. If you have removed any important email, restore them through the trash folder.

You can even delete your emails permanently without sending them to the trash folder. But here, if you lost any of the important attachment, you can not recover them quickly. But Recoverit Data Recovery can give you easy assess to all your lost files quickly.