How to automatically mark deleted messages as read in Outlook?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2025-04-14

If you remove an unread email message in Microsoft Outlook, the message will be moved to the Deleted Items folder and remain unread. In some cases, Outlook users may want to automatically mark deleted messages as read for rule execution or other reasons. Here, I will introduce methods to mark deleted messages as read in Microsoft Outlook.

Mark all deleted items as read manually

Auto mark deleted items as read with one click

Auto mark deleted messages as read with VBA

Mark all deleted items as read manually

In Microsoft Outlook, users can easily mark an entire mail folder as read, including the Deleted Items folder.

After deleting your email messages, select the "Deleted Items" folder in the Navigation Pane, right-click it, and select "Mark All as Read" from the right-click menu. See screenshot below:

doc-mark-deleted-as-read-1

Auto mark deleted items as read with one click

If you want to mark deleted items in subfolders as read or automatically mark items as read upon deletion, how can you accomplish this? Here, the "Mark Delete as Read" utility of "Kutools for Outlook" can help.

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1. Click "Kutools Plus" > "Utilities" > "Mark as Read" > "Enable Mark as Read".

A dialog box will pop up asking if you want to include subfolders. Click "Yes" to mark deleted items in both the main folder and subfolders, or click "No" to exclude subfolders.

Then, a confirmation dialog will pop up to inform you that all deleted items have been marked as read.

Moreover, any unread emails deleted and moved to the Deleted Items folder will automatically be marked as read.

Auto mark deleted messages as read with VBA

This section will introduce a VBA macro that automatically marks all deleted messages as read upon deletion.

Step 1: Press "Alt" + "F11" together to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

Step 2: Expand "Project1" in the left pane, and double-click "ThisOutlookSession" to open a blank window.

doc-mark-deleted-as-read-2

Step 3: Paste the following VBA code into the blank window.

VBA: Auto mark deleted messages as read

Dim WithEvents g_OlkFolder As Outlook.Items
Private Sub Application_Quit()
Set g_OlkFolder = Nothing
End Sub
Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set g_OlkFolder = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderDeletedItems).Items
End Sub
Private Sub g_OlkFolder_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
Item.UnRead = False
Item.Save
End Sub

Step 4: Save the VBA macro and restart your Microsoft Outlook.

Note: This VBA macro only works with Microsoft Outlook 2013 and will only mark deleted items as read in the default data file.

From now on, when you delete emails either manually or automatically through rules, the unread deleted emails will be immediately marked as read in the Deleted Items folder.