Deleting and recovering emails in Office 365 (2024)

FAQs

Can you recover permanently deleted emails from Office 365? ›

How do I recover permanently deleted emails from Office 365? You can recover permanently deleted items from the Recoverable Items. For this, select Deleted Items and click Recover items deleted from this folder. Find the item you are looking for and click Restore.

After you delete an email in Office 365, it is automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder. It will remain in there until the Deleted Items folder is emptied, either by using the empty deleted items option or the emptying the deleted items folder when I sign out option.

Re: Outlook Storage Full Despite Deleting Everything

Check Other Outlook Folders for that ensure all other folders in Outlook (Sent Items, Drafts, Junk Email, etc.) are empty or have been cleared out. Large attachments in emails can consume significant space. Go through emails and remove any large attachments.

Manually Delete Emails Permanently from Outlook

Sign in to Outlook on the Web using the O365 credentials. Use the check box to select the Outlook 365 folder to delete. Above you will find the Delete button, press the button.

When you delete an item, it goes into your Deleted Items folder. This is called a Soft deletion. After 30 days, a retention policy on the Deleted Items folder means that your item is automatically moved from your Deleted Items folder to the Deletions folder. This is called a Permanent Deletion.

Notes: Email is automatically deleted from your Deleted Items folder after 30 days. Items removed from your Deleted Items folder are recoverable for 30 days. Junk email is retained for 10 days before it is automatically deleted.

At the top of your inbox, above the message list, select the check box. Above the message list, select Delete. All the email in your inbox will be moved to the Deleted Items folder. To permanently delete the messages, right-click the Deleted Items folder and select Delete all.

Reinstalling Microsoft Outlook won't delete emails or settings. However, it's best to back up your data before doing this. With these steps, you can easily download and install Microsoft Outlook. Take advantage of all the features and benefits of this email client!

Empty the Deleted Items folder – Empty the Deleted Items folder frequently to make sure you aren't keeping messages you don't need. Empty the Junk Email folder – Periodically empty the Junk Email folder to save your inbox space for messages you actually want.

Items that you delete are moved to the Deleted Items or Trash folders but aren't permanently deleted until those folders are emptied. Over time, the contents of the Deleted Items folder can consume a large amount of space on your computer or email server storage quota.

How do I free up space on my Outlook account? ›

From the Settings > Storage page you should see a breakdown of how much space each folder in your mailbox is taking. Below, you should see a list of the folders represented in the breakdown with the option to permanently delete all items (or those older than 3, 6, or 12 months) in these folders to free up space.

In Outlook, click on the "Deleted Items" folder. On the ribbon at the top of the screen, click "Recover items deleted from this folder." A list of deleted items that are recoverable will be exposed. Select the email you want to recover, and then click "Recover Selected Items" or "Recover All Items."

Outlook may auto delete emails due to the email filters/settings set. To prevent this, review your email settings and adjust any filters or rules that may be causing unwanted deletions.

If you have backup turned on for your Gmail account, it can be a lot easier to recover permanently deleted emails. Depending on how you've backed up your deleted messages, you can use one or more of the options here: Recover deleted emails using the Gmail Message Recovery Tool. Access Google Vault.

Limitations of Relying on Office 365 Exchange

Limited retention time: The Deleted Items folder only retains files for 30 days, the recoverable items folder only holds files for 14 days. Manual deletion can affect recovery: Users can empty Deleted Items folders or purge recoverable items folders.

Use the Microsoft 365 admin center to Restore a user account

After the user account is deleted, it's listed on the Deleted Users page in the Microsoft 365 admin center. It can be recovered within 30 days after being deleted. After 30 days, the user account and mailbox are permanently deleted and not recoverable.

In the Organizing Mail section of the New Search Folder window, hit Old mail. Hit Choose and set the required period, for instance, Older than 3 months. Days, weeks, and months are available to choose from. Choose the required Microsoft 365 account using the dropdown menu, and hit OK.