#!/bin/cat
$Id: FAQ.Emptying.txt,v 1.11 2020/10/13 16:24:43 gilles Exp gilles $

This documentation is also available online at
https://imapsync.lamiral.info/FAQ.d/

https://imapsync.lamiral.info/FAQ.d/FAQ.Emptying.txt

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               Imapsync tip to empty an account.
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Questions answered in this FAQ are:

Q. How to delete all emails of all folders of an account with imapsync?
Q. How to delete all folders of an account with imapsync?
Q. How to delete some folders of an account with imapsync?
Q. How to revert a sync that went to the wrong account?

Now the questions again with their answers.

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Q. How to delete all emails of all folders of an account with imapsync?

R. Use the same account on both sides with option --delete1
   --noexpungeaftereach

Option --noexpungeaftereach is just to speed up the deletions.

Example (real example):

  imapsync \
    --host1 test.lamiral.info --user1 empty --password1 secret \
    --host2 test.lamiral.info --user2 empty --password2 secret \
    --delete1 --noexpungeaftereach

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Q. How to delete all folders of an account with imapsync?

R. Use the same account on both sides with the options 
    --delete1 --noexpungeaftereach --delete1emptyfolders
    
  imapsync ... --delete1 --noexpungeaftereach --delete1emptyfolders

It won't delete the folder INBOX since INBOX is mandatory in imap.


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Q. How to delete some folders of an account with imapsync?

R. Use the same account on both sides with the options 
    --delete1 --noexpungeaftereach --delete1emptyfolders
    like when deleting all folders BUT select only the folders
    you want to delete by using options to select folders,
    like --folder or --folderrec or --include or --exclude 

Example, to delete the folder Blabla

  imapsync ... --delete1 --noexpungeaftereach --delete1emptyfolders --folder Blabla

To delete the four folders Kalender Kontakte Aufgaben Notizen:

  imapsync ... --include 'Kalender|Kontakte|Aufgaben|Notizen' \
                 --delete1 --noexpungeaftereach --delete1emptyfolders

I strongly recommend to use --dry first!

To get an overview of how to select folders, see
https://imapsync.lamiral.info/FAQ.d/FAQ.Folders_Selection.txt

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Q. How to revert a sync that went to the wrong account?

R. If all the wrong emails have some common characteristic that is not
 shared by the good one, then you can search for them and delete them
 using the same account as source and destination. For example, if all
 the messages have the same email destination address as
 "john_smith@example.com", then you can remove them with the following
 command:
   
   imapsync ... --search "TO john_smith@example.com" --delete1 

 Be very careful with deletions! Since this section deals with something
 that was made wrong, you're in good place to make a new one!
 
 There is many possibilities to select messages with different criterium.
 See some of them by reading the document 
 https://imapsync.lamiral.info/FAQ.d/FAQ.Messages_Selection.txt

 If the wrongly emails messages synced have no special common 
 characteristic then take an handkerchief and cry.

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