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How to stop/prevent Outlook from auto-deleting emails?

Author Kelly Last modified

Have you ever met emails in the Deleted Items folder are cleared automatically when exiting Outlook? Or email, calendar items, or tasks are removed automatically in regular period? Here, in this article I will introduce two solutions to stop Outlook from auto-deleting items in Deleted items folder or any specified folder in Outlook.


Stop Outlook from auto-deleting emails in Deleted Items folder

This method will guide you to stop Outlook from auto-deleting items in the Deleted Items folder when exiting Outlook. Please do as follows:

1. Click File > Options.

2. In the Outlook Options dialog box, please click Advanced in the left bar, and then uncheck the Empty Deleted Items folders when exiting Outlook option in the Outlook start and exit section. See screenshot:
doc-stop-outlook-auto-delete-1

3. Click the OK button to save the change.

From now on, the Deleted Items folder won’t be cleared automatically when exiting Outlook program.

Automatically forward every email to the specified recipient in Outlook

Generally speaking, we can set a rule to automatically forward emails to the specified recipients, such as your another email account, your Gmail, or your colleagues, etc. But, all we know it will take a long time to configure a custom rule in Outlook. Now, we introduce Kutools for Outlook's (Automatic) Forward feature, which can set a auto forwarding rule with several clicks only.


auto forward emails

Stop Outlook from auto-deleting emails in specified folder

If items are removed automatically from a certain Outlook folder in a regular period, such as appointments and meetings are deleted automatically every month, it may be caused by AutoArchive. In this condition, please go ahead with below steps:

1. Right click the specified Outlook folder, and click Properties from the right-clicking menu. See screenshot:
doc-stop-outlook-auto-delete-2

2. In the opening Properties dialog box, please enable the AutoArchive tab, and check the Do not archive items in this folder option. See screenshot:
doc-stop-outlook-auto-delete-3

3. Click the OK button to save the change.

Since now, the older items in the specified folder won’t be deleted automatically.

Note: This method works well for mail folders, calendar folders, and task folder as well.


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