Empty Trash, Junk, or a folder

Permanent deletion is intentionally a review-and-apply workflow.

Empty Trash

Preview up to 50 exact locations:

icloud mail empty trash --limit 50 --dry-run

The preview returns a purge_id and request_hash. Apply that exact reviewed page:

icloud mail empty trash \
  --purge-id pur_… \
  --request-hash <reviewed-hash> \
  --yes \
  --jsonl

If more Trash mail remains, create a new dry-run page and repeat.

Empty Junk

The same pattern applies:

icloud mail empty junk --limit 50 --dry-run

Then apply the returned review identifiers with --yes.

Empty a custom folder

For an ordinary custom folder you deliberately name:

icloud mail empty folder 'Temporary Import' \
  --limit 50 \
  --dry-run

Then use the returned purge_id and request_hash on the matching apply command.

Why it is paged

A request to “empty Trash” can affect a large mailbox. The CLI turns it into small reviewed pages so a person or agent can see the scope before permanent deletion and recover cleanly if a page is interrupted.

For deleting one exact message location instead, use:

icloud mail delete msg_… --from trash --dry-run

See Organize mail.