Remove an email account

Removing an account deletes Primail’s local copy of that mailbox on this device. It never deletes messages on Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Fastmail, or any other provider.

There is no Also remove from Primail Cloud checkbox. There is no Primail configuration-sync service to opt out of.

Remove from this Mac

From the account list:

1. Open Settings → Accounts.
2. Use Remove on the account row, or open the account and choose Log out.
3. Read the summary that appears after the attempt.

From the account page, Log out is the same local removal.

Primail then:

• Deletes the account row and associated local cache.
• Purges that account from the local search index.
• Removes the Keychain entries Primail stored for it.
• Cancels pending or failed scheduled sends for that account, then deletes remaining local schedule, offline-queue, and draft-recovery rows for it.
• Stops using the account in the sidebar.

If Keychain or search cleanup fails after the row is gone, the summary says cleanup was incomplete. Mail on the provider is still untouched.

CLI: primail account remove ACCOUNT_ID. MCP: account_remove with { "account_id": "…" }. Neither tool takes a cloud-delete flag.

What this destroys locally

Primail drafts live in the local SQLite cache, not as a guaranteed IMAP Drafts APPEND. Removing the account erases those local drafts. Pending local scheduled sends for that account are cancelled. They are not restored from a Primail cloud.

Drafts that already exist as ordinary messages in the provider’s Drafts folder (created by another client) stay on the provider.

Re-add later

Add the account again with Connect your first email account. Primail fetches the mailbox from the provider. Local-only drafts and cancelled schedules do not come back from the provider unless they were stored there independently.

Related

• Remove local accounts and app data — device-wide cleanup is still account-by-account plus uninstall; there is no cloud wipe.
• Credentials & Keychain