why can a colleague see my draft reply in their sent emails when they no longer have delegate access?

Question

why can a colleague see my draft reply in their sent emails when they no longer have delegate access to my inbox. Previously, had full access to my inbox as a delegate

Answer 1

When a colleague can still see your draft reply in their sent emails after losing delegate access, it may be due to the way Outlook handles shared and delegated access. If they had previously accessed your mailbox with full delegate permissions, some cached information or synchronization issues might still allow them to see certain items, like drafts, until the cache is fully updated or cleared.

Additionally, if the draft was created in a shared context or if the email was sent from a shared mailbox, it might still appear in their sent items due to the way Outlook manages sent emails from shared mailboxes or delegated accounts.

To resolve this, ensure that the delegate access is properly removed and consider clearing the Outlook cache or checking the settings related to shared mailboxes and drafts.

Answer 2

Hi @Anon, 

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concern. To summarize, you’re asking why a colleague can still see a draft reply in their Sent Items even though they no longer have delegate access to your mailbox. Previously, they had full delegate permissions. 

When a delegate creates or sends items on your behalf, those items are stored in their Sent Items as part of Outlook’s design. Removing delegate access does not retroactively remove drafts or messages that were created or synced while access was active. This is expected behavior because those items form part of the delegate’s mailbox history. 

Below are a few practical solutions that could best fit your current needs:  

1/ Begin by verifying the removal of delegation rights and folder-level access across the mailbox.  

• Remove all delegation and folder permissions 
• In Outlook on the web: Settings > Mail > Accounts > Mailbox delegation. Remove the colleague from Read and manage, Send As, and Send on behalf. Manage permissions for recipients in Exchange Online | Microsoft Learn 
• In New Outlook: open Sent Items and Drafts, choose Sharing and permissions, and remove the colleague if present. Share and access another person's mailbox or folder in Outlook - Microsoft Support 

2/ Process by removing any remaining mailbox links from the colleague’s New Outlook profile.  

• On the colleague’s device open Settings > Accounts > Email accounts. Under shared with me or open these additional mailboxes remove your mailbox.  
• Sign out and sign back in to refresh permissions.  

3/ Continue by purging and reinitializing the local cache and profile to restore proper operation. 

• Close New Outlook and reopen. If the behavior remains, remove and add the account again from Accounts to clear cached connections. 

4/ After that, ensure service entitlements are applied and test feature access. 

• If you have admin rights, check and remove Send As and Send on behalf in Exchange admin tools or PowerShell by reviewing GrantSendOnBehalfTo and mailbox delegation. 
• Send a quick test message and confirm that only your own Sent Items shows the sent copy. 

5/ Contact IT administrator 

Since your account is managed by your organization, please contact your IT administrator to review your permissions and policies. If the issue persists after these checks, ask your IT administrator to submit a support request directly to Microsoft Support team.      

They can raise a support ticket by visiting: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn   

As community moderators, we appreciate your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not have visibility into deeper backend analysis, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.    

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If you have any updates regarding the issue, please feel free to share them with me.      

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.     

I look forward to continuing the conversation. Best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful and prosperous New Year. 

---

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.