How Long Does Office 365 Keep Deleted Emails? Let’s Learn with a Detailed Write-Up!
Have you ever questioned yourself about what happened after deleting an email and file folders in Outlook or other apps of Office 365? Nowadays this is the most frequent general query asked by the users. Therefore, in this write-up, we are discussing your query, “How long does Office 365 keep deleted emails?”
Topics Covered
Deletion and Recovery of Office 365 data and emails are important tasks of an admin. In this article, we are answering users’ most frequent general query regarding how long does microsoft keep deleted emails. However, we are also discussing what happens after you delete the email from Outlook, and how you can change the recovery period of deleted emails. Additionally, we are talking about how to disable or enable the auto clean-up of deleted item folders.
User query: How long do emails stay in the Deleted folder before they are automatically cleaned up? Is the deleted folder automatically cleaned out? I can’t find old emails that I’ve deleted, some are within 30 days. – RickGadue.
Sure, we are explaining how long Microsoft 365 keeps deleted emails. Before that, you must understand the concepts and what happens when you delete an email in Outlook. We also answer whether the deleted folder is automatically cleaned out or not.
If we are discussing Office 365 emails, Outlook plays a crucial role as it manages emails and also serves as the popular email client for Microsoft 365. In this article, we are only talking about how long the emails reside in Outlook after deletion. Let’s deep delve directly into what happens when you click on the deleted button in Outlook.
What Happens When an Email is Deleted in Outlook 365?
Before discussing how long does Office 365 keep deleted emails, let’s discuss what happens when you delete an email. When an email is deleted in Outlook, it first moves to the “Deleted Items” folder where it remains for about 30 days. This allows users to retrieve it if needed. After this period, the email is transferred to the “Recoverable Items” folder (or dumpster) for an additional 14 days. Users can easily retrieve the emails by clicking on the link that is available on Outlook
Steps to Find the Recoverable Items Link
- Step 1. Go to Outlook >>Click on the Deleted Items folder.
- Step 2. Click on the Recoverable Item link placed on top.
- Step 3. Right-click the file that you want to cover>> Click on recover.
How Long Does Office 365 Keep Deleted Emails?
In technical terms keeping deleted emails is known as Retention. However, in Microsoft 365, there is also a different concept of retention period which is used for deciding what happens with emails and data after a certain period or different conditions.
Office 365 keeps deleted emails to balance user convenience with data management needs. Deleted Item folder contains deleted emails only for 30 days. After 30 days, emails are only available in the “Recoverable Items” folder (Dumpster), where emails are stored for an additional 14 days. Therefore, the total retention period for deleted emails is 44 days from the day when you deleted the email.
So the Answer to your query regarding how long Office 365 keeps deleted emails is 30 days, but if consider the Recoverable Items folder too then Office 365 keeps deleted emails for a maximum of 44 days. After this, emails are typically permanently deleted from Microsoft 365 servers and cannot be recovered by users. However, administrators have additional options like backup and sending deleted files to the archive depending on retention policies. These retention Policies facilitate users to perform recovery and maintain efficient data management and efficient storage utilization in Office 365.
Note: The 44-day retention of emails is by default in Office 365 or we can call this a Default retention policy.
After this, you are aware of the default retention period in Outlook. However, there is also another frequent problem faced by users is Why Office 365 shared mailbox emails stuck in outbox?
How to Change the Retention Settings in Outlook?
In the above section, we have talked about how long Office 365 keeps deleted emails and also mentioned that an administrator can adjust the policies. change what happened with the deleted files after the default retention period. However, there are different steps according to different versions of Outlook.
Steps to Change Retention Settings in Outlook 2019 or Outlook for Microsoft 365:
- Step 1. First, open Outlook and log in to your email account.
- Step 2. Now click on “File” in the top-left corner.
- Step 3. Select “Options” from the left-hand menu.
- Step 4. In the Outlook Options window, select “Advanced” from the sidebar.
- Step 5. Scroll down to the “Mailbox Cleanup” section and click on the “AutoArchive Settings” or “AutoArchive..” button.
- Step 6. Lastly, you can choose which folders to archive, how old files should be before they are archived or removed, and how frequently AutoArchive should run under the AutoArchive Settings or Retention Policies section.
- Step 7. Finally, click “OK” or “Save”.
Steps to Change Retention Settings in Outlook On the Web:
- Step 1. Firstly, click on the “Settings” icon in the top-right corner.
- Step 2. Secondly, select “View all Outlook settings” at the bottom of the settings section.
- Step 3. Thirdly, go to “Mail” > “Automatic processing” > “Retention policies”.
- Step 4. Lastly, create Retention tags and specify what happens after deleting an email according to your organizational policy.
- Step 5. Finally, after adjusting the settings, click “OK” or “Save” to apply the new retention settings.
Read More: How to Enable Retention Policy in Office 365?
Is the Deleted Folder Automatically Cleaned Out?
After answering how long does Office 365 keep deleted emails let’s move forward to solve your query regarding the auto clean-up of deleted item folders. Yes, you can check whether it is enabled or not and if it is enabled then you can disable it simply to resolve your problem.
Follow these steps to check:
- Step 1. Login to Outlook Web App>>Select Settings icon >> Go to Options >> Click on Mail >> Message options.
- Step 2. After that, check whether the checkbox next to “Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out” is checked or unchecked.
- Step 3. If the check box is checked then uncheck it
After following these steps you have successfully resolved your query. you can also read how to set up email forwarding in Outlook 365.
Final Say!
To conclude, we have shown what happens after deleting an email. We have also answered how long does Office 365 keep deleted emails. However, we have discussed in detail all the procedures and how to change the retention settings in Outlook. Additionally, we have shown how you can disable or enable the “Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out” setting. Appreciate, that you have come this long and hope that your problem is finally solved.