How to Stop Outlook from Deleting Emails
Are you having a problem with Outlook automatically deleting some of your emails? This is an issue that’s fairly common. The problem is caused by a number of issues. Coming up with a solution involves finding the cause behind your particular problem. Having Outlook automatically remove emails from your inbox can be a huge problem. You could end up losing a lot of important correspondence as a result. So, what can you do to prevent it from happening?
Stop Outlook from auto-deleting emails in the Deleted Items folder
The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that Empty Deleted Items when Exiting Outlook is not selected in Outlook Options. When you delete messages, they get sent to the Deleted Items folder. You want to keep them there in case there are messages that you wish to retrieve at a later date. So, you need to uncheck the above-mentioned option by taking the following steps;
- Open Outlook and click on File.
- Click on Options.
- Next, click on Advanced.
- Make sure that Empty Deleted Items when Exiting Outlook is not selected.
- Click on Ok.
Stop outlook from archiving emails in a specific folder
You can also stop Outlook from archiving emails in a specific folder. This ensures that emails will remain in this folder until you have manually removed them. The following are the steps that you need to take;
- Open Outlook and right click on the folder from which you do not wish to have emails automatically deleted.
- Click on Properties.
- Click on AutoArchive.
- Select Do not archive items in this folder.
- Click on OK to save your changes.
Leave a copy of messages on the server
Another possible solution is to have Outlook leave a copy of your messages on the Server. This helps in the event that you have lost your messages elsewhere. You can then easily retrieve them from the server. The following is how to set Outlook up to leave a copy of every message on the server;
- Open Outlook and click on File.
- Go to Account Settings.
- In Email Accounts, click on Change.
- Click on More Settings
- Open the Advanced tab.
- Make sure that Leave a copy of messages on the server is checked.
- Click on Ok, then on Next.
- Click on Close and then Finish.
What causes Outlook to delete emails?
That’s how to stop Outlook from automatically deleting emails. We noted in the introduction to this article that this can be a big problem. You could end up losing a lot of important emails. But what causes Outlook to delete emails in the first place? There are a number of reasons behind this.
- In the first instance, it could be that you have set Outlook to automatically delete messages. You can actually use Outlook rules to get some messages automatically moved to the deleted folder. As an example, you can set Outlook up such that messages coming from a particular email address are automatically directed to the Deleted Items folder.
- It may also be that the messages that you are looking for have not been deleted, but they have merely been moved from one folder to the next. This happens if Move Conversation is enabled in Outlook. So, you may have to look through all your folders to find the messages that you are looking for.
- Another possibility is that you have enabled Ignore Conversations on messages from some senders. These messages will now be sent to the Junk folder.
- Finally, emails can get deleted if Outlook is corrupted. In that case, you will need to take steps to repair the program.
Are you looking for email signature solutions?
In this article, we showed you how to stop Outlook from deleting emails. You will have noticed from the above discussion that in the majority of cases, Outlook will not have deleted the messages in question.
What usually happens is that these messages are moved to another folder, which occurs because you will have set Outlook to do so. We provided solutions that you can try out as a way of solving this problem.
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