Cannot empty emails in deleted items folder

Question

Hello 

 

Please i need your help on this issue.

 

on outlook Have tried over 5 days to repeatedly delete the last 61,000 emails in my deleted items folder before I hand over the security key to the company who have brought or company and domain. 

 

Please help so I can empty the last 61,000 items in the deleted folder, thank you

Answer 1

Hello @IniobongNkanga-8038,

Welcome to the Microsoft forum for technical support.

Based on your description, I suggest you try the following methods to empty the Deleted Items folder:

1. Sometimes, the Outlook desktop application may struggle to handle large amounts of data. In this case, it may be more effective to log into OWA and try to empty the Deleted Items folder from there.
2. Use the command in the following format in Exchange Management Shell to delete all messages in a specific user's deleted items:

Search-Mailbox -Identity "Username" -DeleteContent -Force

3. Use the command in the following format to check whether the mailbox is on litigation hold or in-place hold:

Get-Mailbox -Identity "Username" | Format-List LitigationHoldEnabled, LitigationHoldDuration, LitigationHoldDate

or

Get-Mailbox -Identity "Username" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty InPlaceHolds

This will not allow you to delete items from your Deleted Items folder if you are on litigation hold or in-place hold. Removing the hold will solve the problem. Litigation hold or in-place hold can be disabled using a command of the following format:

Set-Mailbox -Identity "Username" -LitigationHoldEnabled $false

or

Set-MailboxSearch "<HoldId>" -InPlaceHoldEnabled $false

Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries.

Best,

Jake Zhang