# How to get rid of an e-mail that refuses to die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675 "2015-06-05T01:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/1 "2015-06-05T01:58:48Z")
Months ago, I answered a craiglist ad about a glass greenhouse through e-mail, and eventually sent it to trash and then deleted it. A while later it pops back up in my draft folder. I delete it again. Day or two later, same thing happens. This time I just let it go and let it stay in there. Eventually, it starts multiplying into two, three or more if I let it go as the days go by. I delete all of them, and then a day or two later, it pops right back up in the draft folder again. If I let it stay, it starts multiplying again. Everything else is running fine on my computer. I’ve got Kapersky anti-virus if that matters. Anybody else have any suggestions on how I can kill this thing? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/2 "2015-06-05T02:06:31Z")
First off, what email are you using and how are you checking it? There’s a big difference between checking, say, AOL on their webmail interface and accessing gmail on your iPhone. Just for kicks, if it’s in your drafts folder, maybe try sending it (even if you have to change the email address to something so it doesn’t go to the original addressee). ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/3 "2015-06-05T02:06:31Z")
Hard to say without knowing what email program you’re using, but how about editing it and changing the addressee to yourself or a faulty email address, and then send it off… Once it’s been sent perhaps the email program will no longer think a draft needs to be kept. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/4 "2015-06-05T02:08:39Z")
Boom, njina’d ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/5 "2015-06-05T02:21:49Z")
Gosh, sorry everybody, I meant to include it’s in my yahoo mail account. I check it on my home computer, and also on my smart phone, and tried to kill it using both. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/6 "2015-06-05T05:06:04Z")
That’s happened to me with Yahoo a couple of times. Both times they were drafts that I never sent. They would keep reappearing in my Drafts folder after being deleted several times. Eventually they just stopped I guess. I don’t know the why or how of it. I believe I tried sending one of them to myself one time to get it out of the Drafts folder without another delete, but I think it still came back. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/7 "2015-06-05T07:30:31Z")
Do you check your email directly using the yahoo website or do you use a standalone email program that checks the yahoo account for you? Have you tried deleting the email directly on the yahoo website? ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/8 "2015-06-05T11:17:03Z")
Well, since it has happened to another on yahoo, perhaps it’s just an annoyance, and I suspect harmless, so won’t spend too much time on figuring how to get rid of it. Maybe it will eventually go away on its own. Richard, I just go on-line directly to my yahoo e-mail account, no stand alone e-mail account that checks it for me. And yes, that is what I’ve been doing, deleting the e-mail directly on the yahoo e-mail website. It’s never gone for much more than 24 hours, before it resurrects itself. JC would be impressed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/9 "2015-06-05T11:41:50Z")
I had a similar yahoo problem following an upgrade. I read somewhere the suggestion to open Yahoo email barebones and delete from there. It worked. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/10 "2015-06-05T18:20:09Z")
my gmail account puts the deleted emails in a “Trash” folder. Items in the “Trash” get automatically deleted from that folder after 30 days, but you can empty the “Trash” and it “permanently deletes” the items. something similar on yahoo? ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/11 "2015-06-05T20:29:41Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I had a similar yahoo problem following an upgrade. I read somewhere the suggestion to open Yahoo email barebones and delete from there. It worked. Could you elaborate what you mean by opening the e-mail barebones and deleting from there? > [@pudytat72](#): > > my gmail account puts the deleted emails in a “Trash” folder. Items in the “Trash” get automatically deleted from that folder after 30 days, but you can empty the “Trash” and it “permanently deletes” the items. > something similar on yahoo? Yes, I delete them often in draft, and it sends them to trash. There I delete them again. I killed it again last night after I made my OP. Just took it one hour to rebirth itself, I let it go, and sob just gave birth to itself again today too. Willard the rat was easier to kill. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/12 "2015-06-05T21:07:21Z")
> [@razncain](#): > > Could you elaborate what you mean by opening the e-mail barebones and deleting from there? Yahoo Email had just upgraded. There was a way to open and use it in the old style. I’m on a tablet right now, but I’ll try to find how to do that. ETA: there was a “classic” option… ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/13 "2015-06-05T22:28:30Z")
Oh, that’s okay, **kayaker,** don’t go to any trouble, but thanks for offering. Like I say, it’s just a little bit of annoyance, doesn’t seem to be causing any real harm. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/14 "2015-06-05T23:49:48Z")
You could try calling Kaspersky or emailing them and asking how to kill the email. I use Kaspersky too and they send me emails with links to use to , they want $99.99 to remove any viruses from your computer if you call them. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-rid-of-an-e-mail-that-refuses-to-die/721675/15 "2015-06-07T16:38:24Z")
It’s only 2 steps to enable Classic Mode on Yahoo Mail: 1. In the upper right, next to your name is a gear. Hover over it and choose “Settings.” 2. The last setting on the screen is “Mail Version.” Click the “Basic” radio button then the “Save” button. Yahoo Mail will reload with in Classic Mode. To get back to the other mode, click the link near the upper right just above the Date column that says “Switch to the newest Yahoo Mail.”