Messages in an e-mail thread are automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder

Original KB number:   2697913

Symptoms

When you use the Ignore feature in Microsoft Outlook 2010 or later versions, messages are automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder.

When this problem occurs, a message trace indicates a DefaultFolderType:DeletedItems-Conversations Processing Agent event. Email messages that trigger this event are delivered directly to the Deleted Items folder.

Cause

This problem occurs if you select Ignore on an e-mail message, and then another message from that same thread is delivered into your mailbox.

When you select Ignore on an e-mail message, Outlook deletes that e-mail message and also keeps track of all future e-mail messages that are related to the ignored message. If a future message that is related to the originally ignored message arrives in your Inbox, Outlook automatically moves that future message to your Deleted Items folder.

Note

This feature isn't available or functional in the following configuration:

• Online mode profile in Outlook
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 mailboxes

Resolution

To resolve this problem, remove the Ignore status of the e-mail thread. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the Deleted Items folder.

2. Select the message that is currently set to be ignored by Outlook.

3. On the Home tab on the ribbon, select Ignore in the Delete section.

   Note

   You can determine whether a message is being ignored by the status of the Ignore control on the ribbon. If the Ignore control is highlighted, the conversation thread on that message is currently being ignored by Outlook.

4. If you're prompted, select Stop Ignoring Conversation.

At this point, the message is automatically moved from your Deleted Items folder to the folder from which the message originated. Future messages for this thread won't be automatically deleted.

When you enable the Ignore option on a conversation, a message is created in the Associated Contents table of the Conversation Action Settings folder of your mailbox (The screenshot for the Conversation Action Settings folder is listed in the following screenshot.)

The associated messages in the Conversation Action Settings folder use the following rules:

• If there's no activity on a thread for 14 days, the conversation action message for the thread is automatically deleted.

• The age of the conversation action message is determined by the oldest message for the conversation.

• You can modify the number of days at which the conversation action messages expire by using the following registry data.

  Subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<x.0>\Outlook\Options\Conversations DWORD: OnGoingActionsExpiration Value: Integer specifying the number of days after which an inactive conversation has its conversation action message deleted

  Note

  The <x.0> placeholder represents your version of Office (16.0 = Office 2016, Office 365, and Office 2019, 15.0 = Office 2013, 14.0 = Office 2010).

• You can start Outlook by using the following command line to delete all conversation action messages in the Associated Contents table of the Conversation Actions folder.

  Outlook.exe /CleanConvOnGoingActions

  Note

  Conversations whose conversation action messages get deleted by the /CleanConvOnGoingActions switch don't reappear in the Inbox. The conversation remains in the Deleted Items folder. However, because the hidden conversation action message no longer exists for the conversation, any new messages for the conversation remain in the Inbox.

You can also get different behavior from this feature, depending on the version of Exchange Server that you're using:

• In Exchange Server 2007 and a cached mode profile, "Ignore" is based on SUBJECT. For example, any message that has "Help" as the subject will automatically be sent to Deleted Items as long as you clicked Ignore for a previous message that had "Help!" as the subject.

• In Exchange Server 2010 and later versions, "Ignore" is based on the CONVERSATION ID, and only the messages that are related to the same ignored conversation are automatically sent to the Deleted Items folder.

When you Ignore a conversation, you receive the following prompt to confirm the action.

In this dialog box, there's also a Don't show this message again option. If you enable this option, you won't be prompted to confirm the Ignore Conversation action the next time you select to ignore a message. If this option is enabled, the following data is written into the registry.

Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Options\General String: PONT_STRING Value: 63

Note

The <x.0> placeholder represents your version of Office (16.0 = Office 2016, Office 365, and Office 2019, 15.0 = Office 2013, 14.0 = Office 2010).

The Pont_String value may include numbers other than 63.