When I was a kid, “delete” meant you were going to get rid of something… as in it would be gone after that. Google changes this definition. If you configured Gmail on your iPhone using Exchange with push support, the delete paradigm breaks down and instead your messages are “archived”.
The solution is to create a new label called “gmailcantdelete”. On your iPhone, move your messages there and then when you are on a real computer, clear out that folder all at once. Use that exact name, so Google employees can track how many users are upset about this workaround.
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Comments
It looks like this is defined: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=86614 And configurable: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4207 Also, the question has been answered on SuperUser.
Chris
Right, that is for IMAP thought. Exchange support has other niceties and would be preferred.
William Entriken
This is extremely unintuitive. You end up having to delete to archive and then move to delete.
Anonymous
Yes. At this point in time there is no solution to this problem. You cannot delete emails if you have an iPhone/iPad accessing Gmail with Exchange (which is the only way to get push Gmail). You can of course access Gmail with IMAP and then be able to delete, but the annoying trade off is that you won't have push email.
Anonymous
The other disadvantage of Gmail with IMAP is that it doesn't sync your calendar. That's why I switched to Gmail with Exchange. My appointments created from my desktop weren't syncing over to my iPhone even when I had turned on the Calendar feature after setting up via IMAP.
Ruben A
Here is the solution : https://cybernetnews.com/gmail-exchange-ios-iphone-delete-instead-of-archive/
Anonymous
Please discuss this topic anywhere and let me know any great comments or media coverage I should link here.