The auto-purge feature also works properly for me. Here are some details:
- Each folder is scanned once per day for spam learning and auto-purge. So you need to wait up to 24 hours to see any effect if you add auto-purge to a folder.
- If the auto-purge box is checked for that folder on the Folders setup screen, unpinned messages older than the set interval are permanently deleted. Pinned messages are not auto-purged.
- But if the "Only purge messages marked as IMAP deleted" box is checked, the IMAP deleted property (set by an email client such as Thunderbird) must be set for the message to be deleted. You do not want to check this box unless you understand how this interacts with email client use.
- Messages are tested for auto-purge by the date they arrived at your Fastmail account.
If you just want to perform a one time download and/or delete of old or large messages from a folder, use the
Mass delete or remove duplicates link at the bottom of the
Settings>Folders screen. You then do the following using the
Purge Folder feature:
- Select a folder.
- Enter a date (as shown in the description on that page)
- Optionally enter a size if you only want to delete large files.
- Click Calculate Size. You will then see how many messages would be deleted and their combined size.
- You can optionally download the messages described by the Calculate Size button as a zip file. This zip file will be sent to your Inbox.
- When you are ready, click Delete Messages. The messages will be permanently deleted.
Bill