Can't empty deleted items in Hotmail

Question

I have done a massive hotmail account cleanup with over 17,000 emails in the deleted folder. It is not letting me empty the deleted items. Recover Deleted Items is empty. Outlook.com web browser shows: 'You can't permanently delete these emails. Try deleting your recoverable items folder. I can move items to the Junk Mail then delete them and then empty the recoverable file but that is tedious. Do you have a solution?

Answer 1

Hi

With more than 17,000 messages, this is likely a bulk-deletion issue rather than something you are doing wrong. Microsoft specifically recommends leaving Outlook.com open while deletion is processing and, if Empty Folder fails, deleting in smaller batches instead. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/cannot-empty-the-deleted-items-folder-in-outlook-com

I would also try Settings > Account > Storage. Find Deleted Items there and use the option to permanently delete its contents. This can sometimes work when Empty Folder does not. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/mailbox-storage-limits-in-outlook

If it still fails, delete a few hundred or around 1,000 messages at a time, then empty “Recover items deleted from this folder” after each batch.