diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 608935c3d..cefb61548 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 - Further improve finding the correct server after logging in #3208
 - `get_connectivity_html()` returns HTML as non-scalable #3213
 - add update-serial to `DC_EVENT_WEBXDC_STATUS_UPDATE` #3215
+- Speed up message receiving via IMAP a bit #3225
 
 
 ## 1.77.0
diff --git a/src/scheduler.rs b/src/scheduler.rs
index 6eb1886c9..91858038f 100644
--- a/src/scheduler.rs
+++ b/src/scheduler.rs
@@ -168,14 +168,6 @@ async fn fetch_idle(ctx: &Context, connection: &mut Imap, folder: Config) -> Int
                 return connection.fake_idle(ctx, Some(watch_folder)).await;
             }
 
-            // Mark expired messages for deletion.
-            if let Err(err) = delete_expired_imap_messages(ctx)
-                .await
-                .context("delete_expired_imap_messages failed")
-            {
-                warn!(ctx, "{:#}", err);
-            }
-
             // Fetch the watched folder.
             if let Err(err) = connection.fetch_move_delete(ctx, &watch_folder).await {
                 connection.trigger_reconnect(ctx).await;
@@ -183,6 +175,17 @@ async fn fetch_idle(ctx: &Context, connection: &mut Imap, folder: Config) -> Int
                 return InterruptInfo::new(false);
             }
 
+            // Mark expired messages for deletion. Marked messages will be deleted from the server
+            // on the next iteration of `fetch_move_delete`. `delete_expired_imap_messages` is not
+            // called right before `fetch_move_delete` because it is not well optimized and would
+            // otherwise slow down message fetching.
+            if let Err(err) = delete_expired_imap_messages(ctx)
+                .await
+                .context("delete_expired_imap_messages failed")
+            {
+                warn!(ctx, "{:#}", err);
+            }
+
             // Scan additional folders only after finishing fetching the watched folder.
             //
             // On iOS the application has strictly limited time to work in background, so we may not