Why: I can’t permanently delete e-mails on my iPhone 13. After I delete the e-mails, they come back to my inbox later. This happens even if I empty the Trash folder after deleting the e-mails. Even the e-mails I move to the Junk folder come back to the Inbox. How do I fix it?
Jim Travers, Colorado Springs
a: Your phone is not communicating properly with your e-mail provider’s servers. As a result, when you delete a message, it disappears from your phone’s inbox but remains in the mail server’s inbox. Then, every time your phone receives new messages from the server, the e-mails you deleted reappear in your inbox.
To fix this, you’ll need to set up your phone so that it tells the mail server which e-mail you’ve chosen to delete. The server will then remove the deleted messages from your inbox and send them to your Trash or Junk folder. And the next time you download new mail from the server, the deleted e-mails will not reappear in your phone’s inbox.
To do this, go to your iPhone’s Settings, click Mail, and then click “Accounts.” On the next screen, click on your e-mail account and you’ll see a list of all the features associated with that account, such as Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Notes. At the top of the screen, click your e-mail address, and click “Advanced” on the following screen.
On the next screen, click “Deleted Mailboxes” under “Mailbox Behavior.” You’ll see two lists: “On my phone,” which contains only one “Trash” mailbox, and “On Server,” which contains multiple mailboxes, including “Trash.”
Make sure “garbage” is checked on the server, and “garbage” is not checked on the phone. Go back two screens to the “Account” page and click “Done” in the upper right corner.
Why: After waking up from “sleep” mode of my old HP laptop, the Microsoft Edge browser starts automatically. Is there any way to stop Edge from doing this?
BILL ASCHENBACH, Blaine
a: Your browser problem is probably caused by apps running in the background on your PC and doing things that you don’t want to do.
Here are several suggested solutions to the problem (note that they don’t work in every case):
- Prevent apps from trying to “set up” your PC. Click on the Start button and select Settings. Within Settings, select Accounts and then select “Sign-in options”. Turn off the “Use my sign-in information to end setting automatically after update” option. (This option may be on the Sign-in Options page, or you may need to click “Privacy” on that page first to find it.) Reboot the PC.
- Turn off “Windows Spotlight”, which allows ads and pictures to be downloaded while your screen is “locked”. Open Settings and click “Personalization”. Click “Lock Screen” and go to “Personalize Your Lock Screen”. Use the dropdown menu to change “Windows Spotlight” to “Pictures.” Choose a background picture to use and reboot the PC.
- Open Edge and click the three dots in the upper-right corner. From the resulting list, choose Settings. From the drop-down menu at the top left of the Settings page, select “System and performance.” Turn off “Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed”. Reboot the PC.
Steve Alexander, longtime business and technology reporter for the Star Tribune, started a Tech Q&A column in 2004 to answer readers’ questions about their digital devices. The column was also distributed by Tribune Media Services and published by other papers across the country. Alexander, who retired from the Star Tribune in 2014, is now retiring from the column, which will be last published next week.
