automatically deleting all my emails

Question

Why is outlook automatically deleting all my emails when the auto delete is not selected

Answer 1

Hi @Crown Sales,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. I understand how concerning it can be to see emails disappearing unexpectedly, especially when auto‑delete is not intentionally enabled.

In most situations, emails aren’t deleted at random. Instead, this behavior is usually caused by specific Outlook settings or mailbox‑level configurations. To help identify what’s happening, I recommend checking the following step by step:

1/ First, confirm where the emails are going:

Please start by checking your Deleted Items and Junk Email folders to see whether the messages are being moved there rather than permanently deleted.

2/ Review your Inbox rules:

In New Outlook (or Outlook on the web), go to Settings > Mail > Rules and carefully review all existing rules.

If you notice any rules you don’t recognize, or rules that move or delete messages automatically, please disable or remove them.

3/ Check forwarding and IMAP settings (if applicable):

While still in Settings, review the Forwarding and IMAP options if you're using IMAP account to ensure emails aren’t being redirected or processed in an unexpected way. If you see any unfamiliar settings, it’s best to remove them.

4/ Try recovering the removed emails:

If the emails are no longer in Deleted Items, you may still be able to restore them using Outlook’s recovery feature:

• Open Deleted Items
• Select Recover items deleted from this folder
  
• Select the emails and choose Restore

You can also review Microsoft's official guidance for more information: Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook.

5/ Review retention policies or admin‑side settings:

If everything looks fine on your end and the issue continues, it’s possible that a retention policy or other administrative setting is affecting your mailbox. These policies are typically managed by your organization.

For example:

In this case, I recommend contacting your IT administrator so they can review the mailbox policies applied to your account.

I hope this information helps move things forward. Please feel free to let me know how the checks go or if you need any further assistance. I’ll be happy to help further.

I look forward to your reply.

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Answer 2

Several Outlook features can remove or move messages even when a general “auto delete” option is not selected. The most common causes from the provided information are:

1. Conversation “Ignore” is enabled on a thread
   If Ignore was clicked on a conversation, Outlook will automatically move all current and future messages in that thread to Deleted Items instead of leaving them in the Inbox.

To stop this:

1. Go to the Deleted Items folder.
2. Select a message from a conversation that is disappearing.
3. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, select Ignore.
4. When prompted, choose Stop Ignoring Conversation.

After this, Outlook moves that conversation back to its original folder and future messages in that thread will no longer be automatically deleted.

2. Rules, Sweep, or message-handling options moving messages
   In Outlook.com or when using Outlook connected to Outlook.com, rules or commands like Sweep can automatically move or delete messages from specific senders or with specific conditions.

Check for these:

• In Outlook.com, open Settings > Mail > Message handling and review:
  • Any rules created under Create rule (for example, rules that move or delete messages from certain senders).
  • Any Sweep actions previously configured to automatically delete messages from a sender or delete messages older than a certain age.

3. Deleted Items folder behavior
   Messages moved to Deleted Items are not immediately gone, but they may disappear when:

• The Deleted Items folder is emptied manually.
• The mailbox is configured to Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out (in Outlook Web App / Outlook.com options).

To review this setting in Outlook Web App:

• Go to Options > Messaging and check whether Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out is enabled.

4. Junk and retention behavior
   If messages are being classified as junk, they may go to Junk and then be removed automatically after a retention period (for example, items in Junk in Outlook.com are automatically deleted after a number of days). Also, if using a Samsung mobile device with its own spam handling, that device can move messages to Junk or Unwanted folders even if Outlook itself is not set to auto-delete.

On a Samsung device using the default mail app:

1. Open the email app.
2. Go to Settings > General Settings.
3. Open Spam addresses and remove any addresses or domains that should not be treated as spam (for example, a corporate domain).

If messages are “disappearing,” check:

• Whether they are going to Deleted Items, Junk, or another folder due to Ignore, rules, or spam settings.
• Whether Deleted Items is being emptied automatically at sign-out.

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References:

• Messages in an e-mail thread are automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder
• Options > Messaging
• Working with message folders in Outlook.com
• Storage limits in Outlook.com
• New email messages automatically move to the Junk folder in Microsoft Outlook