30 day retention of deleted items in outlook

Question

I do not want my deleted emails stored for 30 days. I am using the newer version of Outlook. Can I turn it off?

Answer 1

Deleted items retention is controlled on the mailbox/server side and cannot be fully turned off by a home user in new Outlook.

For Exchange Online mailboxes, when an item is permanently deleted (emptied from Deleted Items or deleted with Shift+Delete), it is moved to the Recoverable Items > Deletions folder and kept there for a period defined by the mailbox’s deleted item retention setting. By default this is 14 days, but an administrator can change it up to a maximum of 30 days using Exchange Online PowerShell:

Set-Mailbox -Identity "User Name" -RetainDeletedItemsFor <days>

This setting can only be changed by someone with the required Exchange Online admin permissions; it is not exposed as a toggle in the new Outlook client for home users, and it cannot be set below 0 days or disabled entirely.

Within Outlook itself, messages can be removed from view immediately by emptying the Deleted Items folder, but they will still be retained in the Recoverable Items area until the server-side retention period expires.

---

References:

• Change how long permanently deleted items are kept for an Exchange Online mailbox
• Microsoft 365 Exchange data deletion
• Read and send email in the light version of Outlook
• Retention and archive policies in Outlook Web App

Answer 2

Hello

Are you using the free outlook.com/hotmail.com address, or are you using Microsoft exchange, an address assigned to you by work or school?