How to Purge Deleted Messages Automatically in Outlook

News
By published

When using IMAP accounts, like Gmail (or others), deleted items aren’t really deleted in Outlook. Instead, they’re marked for deletion, but remain mostly in place until you manually go through and purge them. It’s a feature, not a bug.

Luckily, Outlook gives you two easy ways to take care of the problem, the first is by manually purging deleted items, and the second automatically purges them for you once you switch to a new folder. Let’s look at how to do both.

1. Open the Outlook desktop client.

2. Open the Folder tab.

3. Click Purge and select Purge Marked Items in All Accounts.

4. To automatically purge these items in the future, select Purge Options from the bottom of the Purge menu in the previous step.

5. Click the Advanced tab at the top of the Internet Email Settings dialogue.

6. Check the box next to Purge items when switching folders online. Now, when you switch folders, it’ll automatically purge items marked for deletion.

7. Click OK to close the dialogue.

Microsoft Outlook Tips

Bryan Clark

Bryan covers everything you need to know about Windows, social media, and the internet at large for Laptop Mag. Thanks to his extensive knowledge of operating systems and some of the most popular software out there, Bryan has written hundreds of helpful guides, including tips related to Windows 11 drivers, upgrading to a newer version of the OS, editing in Microsoft Photos, or rearranging pages in Google Docs.