[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by PoolBrews

To clarify - while the All Mail folder is not hidden in the gmail app, it is hidden in all other front ends. If you use Thunderbird, Outlook, or any other POP or iMap app, the All Mail folder does not appear. Deleting items from the inbox in any of these apps does not remove it from the All Mail folder.

Using anything other than the standard gmail interface (which is terrible for ease of use), you need to take special steps to actually view it. Items placed in your trash remain in the All Mail folder forever, which is why storage used continues to grow even when you clean up your trash. To completely remove items and reduce storage when using any of these apps, you need to unhide the folder, and then you need to delete from both your inbox and the "forever" folder.

I use Thunderbird and the Apple mail app and the “all mail” folder sits right there, easily found in both.

The “Delete” button is usually configurable in mail tools. It can move mail to the Trash folder or it can be set to remove the message from the Inbox while leaving it in the Archive / “All mail” folder. If you want to truly delete it then make sure you configure the button that way.

Google and/or Thunderbird can be configured to move messages from Junk/Spam to Trash after 30 days and to permanently delete messages that have been in Trash for 30 days. Look for this in the settings for each tool.