Why do emails deleted on my Mac continue to appear in the inbox of my iPhone?

Hi acnomad,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities! We're glad you've reached out for help with this email behavior you're seeing. Let's get to the bottom of it together.

To start, please let us know a bit more about what's going on. Is this behavior only affecting your Gmail account? Does this issue go in both directions? For example, have you noticed if deleting a message on iPhone deletes off of Mac?

Which version of macOS have you got installed on your Mac, and which version of iOS on your iPhone? Do the messages you deleted on your MacBook Pro remain present on your Mac mini as well?

You mentioned that both devices have a reliable internet connection. Have you had a chance to restart both since noticing this behavior? If not, please do so now, as this will help refresh the network connection the next time the Mail app is opened on each.

Here's a guide with the recommended steps to perform a standard restart on Mac:

Log out, sleep, wake, restart, or shut down your Mac - Apple Support

And here are the steps for iPhone:

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support

Let us know if you've got any questions whatsoever.

Have a great day!

Hi acnomad,

Got it, thanks! In that case, will it be possible to join your Mac to a different Wi-Fi network to verify if the issue persists? This can help to isolate the root cause to your network connection.

If it's no longer occurring on another Wi-Fi network, we can recommend restarting your previous Wi-Fi router, then joining that network again to test further.

If it's still occurring on another network, you may opt to delete your Gmail account from the Mail app, then add it back. This process verifies the correct mail account settings, so it may resolve unexpected issues if some account setting has changed on the service provider's side.

This guide explains how to remove and add a mail account:

Add or remove email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

We're here for you if you've got questions.

Take care.

Hi acnomad,

Thanks so much for clarifying. Since the issue persists after deleting and adding your account back, you'll want to test in safe mode to see if there's some installed login item that is interfering with the Mail app. Safe mode prevents login items from loading, so it's a great way to isolate software issues.

Here's a guide with the recommended steps to test in safe mode:

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

If the issue is no longer occurring in safe mode, you'll want to restart your Mac once more to start up normally, and test again. If the issue returns, this helps to isolate it so some incompatibility with a login item. Follow the steps in this guide to test your login items:

Remove login items to resolve startup problems on your Mac - Apple Support

We're here for you if you've got any questions, or find that the issue persists in safe mode as well.

Have a great day!

Hi acnomad,

That's great! We're glad to hear it's working as expected. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you've got questions about this, or start a new post for any other questions..

Thanks again!