Apple - Delete Mails in Mac Mail without Trash

You can delete emails and bypass the trash using

⌥ Option + ⌫ Backspace

(Successfully tested with OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). Could work with older versions, too.)


If you want to delete emails that are already in trash it is enough to hit ⌫ Backspace to delete them permanently. If you are accustomed to also press the ⌘ Command, like deleting a file in Finder, you can do so. But basically, backspace is enough.


All you have to do is any of the following:

  • hold down the Option key, while clicking on the trash can on the top toolbar
  • hold down the Option key, while clicking on 'delete' on the top menubar
  • hold down the Option key, while right-clicking on the desired emails and scroll down to select 'delete'
  • hold down the Option key, while pressing the Delete key on your keyboard.

Why look in the trash at all? Just set your Trash to automatically delete messages after a day. You can do that in the Accounts pane of preferences:

Accounts pane