How to Stop/Avoid Outlook from Deleting My Emails?

Does Outlook automatically empty your Deleted Items folder or Trash? Do your received Emails, Contacts, Tasks, Calendar items, etc. get removed from the Outlook profile regularly? Then, here is the solution.

This informative blog article shows you how to stop Outlook from deleting emails or other attributes in just two simple steps. Carefully follow these instructions and implement the same in your Outlook profile.

1. How to Stop Outlook Emptying Deleted Items Folder?

Follow these step-by-step guidelines to stop Outlook from automatically emptying Deleted Items folder contents each time you close Outlook:

1. Open Outlook, go to the File menu, and select Options.

file-menu-options

2. Click on Advanced in the Outlook Options dialogue box left pane.

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3. Under the “Outlook start and exit” section, disable (uncheck) the Empty Deleted Items folders when exiting the Outlook option.

4. Click OK to save your changes and restart Outlook.

This stops Outlook from auto-deleting your emails or other attributes from the Deleted Items folder after exiting the Outlook program.

2. How to Stop Outlook Automatically Deleting Emails from Inbox/Specific Folder?

If your emails from the Outlook Inbox folder or any other items like appointments, meetings, tasks, etc. are deleted automatically from a certain Outlook folder in regular intervals of time, then it is due to the AutoArchive feature.

Enabling AutoArchive in Outlook moves your old emails and other items to a separate personal folder (PST file) on the hard drive (server or workgroup if, specified). Your Calendar entries, Tasks, and Journals will auto-archive after 6 months, and Sent Items, as well as Deleted Items, will auto-archive after 2 months by default.

To stop Outlook from automatically deleting emails from Inbox or any other specific items, follow the below instructions:

1. Right-click on Inbox or a specific Outlook folder from which Outlook is deleting items automatically. Select Properties.

properties

2. In the Properties wizard, switch to the AutoArchive tab and enable (check) Do not archive items in this folder checkbox.

3. Save the changes by clicking the OK button.

3. Restore Automatically Deleted Emails and Other Items

Outlook automatically moves your old emails and other attributes to an archive.pst file located in the C:\Users\Username\Documents\Outlook Files location (in newer MS Outlook versions) and deletes them from your Mailbox.

In case, you want to recover automatically deleted items in Outlook then, navigate to the same path where the archive.pst file is created and import it into your Outlook profile. Thus, your deleted items will be restored back to the Mailbox.

archive-pst-file

In some rare cases, you cannot recover deleted emails, Calendar entries, Tasks, Journals, and other items which are removed from Outlook using this archive.pst, especially if the file is damaged or broken.

If so, then make use of Scanpst.exe, an inbuilt Inbox Repair tool available in MS Outlook, or an efficient third-party Outlook PST repair software and fix the Archive.pst file. Later, restore your emails and other attributes which are automatically deleted by Outlook.