Deleted Items folder

[Computer Doc]

I recently switched over to Office Live email accounts (MAPI) and use Outlook
Connector to deal with my messages in Outlook 2003 Basic. I now find that
messages in the Deleted Items folder are not retained for more than about a
week or so, which was not the case when I had POP3 email accounts. There are
no rules created (and there never have been) and View is set to All Messages.
Tech support at Office Live have been helpful in the past, but this time
they say that there is no option in Office Live for mail retention and that
the problem has to be Outlook.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The only setting in Outlook that could be causing this is when you have
AutoArchive enabled and set it to delete it (it's turned off by default);
Tools-> Options-> tab Other-> button AutoArchive

If the Office Live accounts are anything like the Live Hotmail accounts then
there is indeed a policy from Live Hotmail in place to remove deleted items
after a week.

 

[Computer Doc]

Thank you for the quick response. I checked, and AutoArchive is set to do
its thing on messages over six months old. As for the Office Live accounts,
they have the exact same look and feel as Hotmail accounts (I have both), so
that reinforces my original suspicion that the problem is with the account.
I will forward your response to them and see what happens.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You're welcome

While they haven't officially stated the retention time, they are confirming
that they have one in place in their help system;

"Windows Live Hotmail provides you with 5 gigabytes (GB) of storage space.
Windows Live Hotmail regularly deletes old items from your Junk e-mail and
Deleted items folders. To ensure that your account doesn't exceed the
maximum size, save attachments and large messages to your computer, and
regularly delete messages that you don't need from your other folders."

 

[Computer Doc]

Thanks for pointing that out. I am now more convinced than ever that Office
Live / Hotmail is the culprit, but I doubt I'll be able to convince Office
Live tech support. After I forwarded your first response they just
reiterated the same thing they sent me before. I'm going to try again and
forward your last response but I'm not expecting anything. I guess I never
should have even mentioned Outlook to them at all but I thought it might
help. Looks like I inadvertently gave them an excuse to try to get rid of me
without ever addressing the issue. You, however, have been very helpful and
I thank you for your time.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You're welcome and good luck!

If you can't get around it and you really want to keep your Deleted Items a
bit longer then I would recommend to turn on AutoArchive. Make sure that it
is disabled for all folder except your Deleted Items folder and set it to
archive to a separate pst-file instead of deleting it. Set AutoArchive to
run every day and you should be ok.