Disable AutoArchive Setting ignored in MS Outlook

Question

Disable AutoArchive Setting ignored in MS Outlook

KR820 0

Step 1: Disable Auto-Archive

Set up a new email account. Right Click "Deleted Items" > Properties > AutoArchive Tab > Disable AutoArchive

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Step 2: Wait 30-45 Days

30-45 days is just a random number. No significance to it. Wait .... wait ..... wait ..... wait ....

Step 3: Check Oldest Remaining Email Item

Go to Deleted Items on March 8, 2023 and see what your oldest email item is:

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Note that the oldest item in your Deleted Items folder is Febuary 9, 2023

Step 4: Notice the Option to Recover link

At the top of the Deleted Items folder, there's a notification asking if I want to recover items that have been "recently removed". Why was anything recently removed?

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Step 5: Click Recover Items Link

Notice that Outlook has apparently AutoArchived everything older than 30 days despite the setting telling it not to.

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Am I doing something wrong? Is this a bug?

There are several examples of people reporting this in the other forums. Nobody ever seems to know whats wrong or how to fix it. They just keep saying to disable Auto Archive.

Note:

I am not using Outlook at a company. I'm on a personal Microsoft 365 account. I have no external administrator. I'm using an Outlook dot com email address. I'm using MS Outlook Desktop client. Just trying to think of all the responses I've seen to other people that made no difference.

I miss the days when MS Outlook simply created PST files on your hard drive and everything was always visible, in every folder, forever.

Faery Fu-MSFT 19,686 Reputation points

2023-03-28T06:39:41.0433333+00:00

Hi @KR820 ,

Is there any update on this thread? If the issue has been resolved, please mark the helpful replies as answers, this will make answer searching in the forum easier and be beneficial to other community members as well. Thanks for your understanding.

1 answer

Your answer

Faery Fu-MSFT 19,686 Reputation points

2023-03-28T06:39:41.0433333+00:00

Hi @KR820 ,

Is there any update on this thread? If the issue has been resolved, please mark the helpful replies as answers, this will make answer searching in the forum easier and be beneficial to other community members as well. Thanks for your understanding.

Answer 1

ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,056 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @KR820 ,

Welcome to our forum!

According to your description, i notice that you have a Outlook.com account and found that emails in Deleted Items has been removed after Auto Archive was disabled. As i know, this is the expected behavior of the Outlook.com account and not the behavior of the Outlook desktop client.

More information: Restore deleted email messages in Outlook.com

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

KR820 0 Reputation points

2023-03-09T04:21:07.7833333+00:00

This is an absolutely horrible policy.

I am an Outlook user for over 20 years.

My local MS Outlook Desktop client had PST files that stored everything, regardless of any "online" email account policies.

Nothing came to my local machine to force deletion of anything.

Are you telling me that's what you guys do now? You come to my local machine, which can store billions of emails for free, at no cost to you, and you force deletion of my emails from some remote trigger?

That is mind bogglingly ridiculous to me.

Why do you care what's on my local machine? Its not costing Microsoft any money at all. Why in Gods green earth would you be reaching into my local machine and deleting my emails?

How do I avoid this? Please tell me there is some way to block this or stop it, or bypass it. Otherwise I am going to be leaving Outlook email as well.
KR820 0 Reputation points

2023-03-09T05:16:18.3366667+00:00

Christy -

Is there any way for me to set a "Rule" that says anything I delete gets sent to a specified folder which I can create and which I can name?

I don't want them going to the "Archive" folder.

The fact that I even have to do this is ridiculous. As long as emails were stored on my local machine, for the last 20 years, you didn't touch them. Why are you now?
ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,056 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-03-09T08:00:56.88+00:00

Hi @KR820 ,

Thanks for your reply!

Please kindly understand that the retention policy is based on the server but not Outlook client, n order to better solve your problem, it's suggested that you could post your case in dedicated forum for Outlook.com for more professional advice.
ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,056 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-03-14T06:13:03.2866667+00:00

Hi @KR820 ,

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you think my reply is helpful to you, please remember to mark it as an answer.

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Disable AutoArchive Setting ignored in MS Outlook

Step 1: Disable Auto-Archive

Step 2: Wait 30-45 Days

Step 3: Check Oldest Remaining Email Item

Step 4: Notice the Option to Recover link

Step 5: Click Recover Items Link

1 answer

Your answer