How to fix "search in state AUTH" errror

Question

As you can see the mail.select() method is after connecting and before search, but keep getting this error(I'm using VS Code): raise self.error("command %s illegal in state %s, " imaplib.IMAP4.error: command SEARCH illegal in state AUTH, only allowed in states SELECTED

This is my code:

import imaplib
import email

def delete_messages_with_phrase(folder, phrase):
    # Selecting the email folder (inbox or trash)
    mail.select(folder)

    status, response = mail.search(None, 'ALL')
    email_ids = response[0].split()
    ...
  

def delete_trash_messages(delete_option, phrase=None):
    mail.select('[Gmail]/Trash')
    ...


username = '[email protected]'
password = 'password'


mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com')


mail.login(username, password)


folder_choice = input("Enter folder to delete messages (inbox/trash): ").lower()
if folder_choice == 'inbox':
    delete_phrase = input("Enter phrase to delete messages: ")
    delete_messages_with_phrase('inbox', delete_phrase)
elif folder_choice == 'trash':
    delete_option = input("Delete all messages or messages with given phrase? (all/phrase): ").lower()
    if delete_option == 'all':
        delete_trash_messages('all')
    elif delete_option == 'phrase':
        phrase = input("Enter phrase to delete messages: ")
        delete_trash_messages('phrase', phrase)
else:
    print("Invalid choice.")


mail.expunge()
mail.close()
mail.logout()

I read that I have to paste the mail.select() method before mail.close() and I did it, but again same error.