How do I sort my deleted email folder in Outlook by Date Deleted?

B

Barbara T

There are times when I accidentally hit the delete button on an email that I
intended to keep. It goes into my Deleted Items folder which is sorted by
received date. To find them quickly and easily (I don't always know what the
received date was) I'd like to be able to sort that box by Deleted Date (so
that I can see the ones I did most recently on top). Is there a way to do
this?

Thanks for any help.

Barbara
 
F

F. H. Muffman

Barbara T said:
There are times when I accidentally hit the delete button on an email that
I
intended to keep. It goes into my Deleted Items folder which is sorted by
received date. To find them quickly and easily (I don't always know what
the
received date was) I'd like to be able to sort that box by Deleted Date
(so
that I can see the ones I did most recently on top). Is there a way to do
this?

Modified Date should be updated when you delete the item. Simply add that
column to the view and sort by it.
 
F

F. H. Muffman

Brett said:
Modified date SHOULD be updated when you delete the item but I've tried
this
on 4 different computers now and it does not. Why doesn't Microsoft
include
a simple date deleted field that actually works for this? UGHHH!!!

Err, it updates on mine. What type of mail server? Exchange? POP?
Hotmail?
 
F

F. H. Muffman

Brett said:
POP3. Thanks.

Ok, that's what I'm using. I guess I should have asked your version of
Outlook as well.

As for why Microsoft doesn't include a deleted date? Well, you deleted the
item. You obviously didn't want it. Why add a field for an email that you
threw away. Before you shred your mail, do you stamp it with a timestamp?

This is a prime example of why you should empty your deleted items
regularly. Then there wouldn't be so much you'd have to dig through to find
the accidentally deleted message.
 
B

Brett

OK, I was expecting to hear that I had to have Exchange for this "feature" to
work. ;-) I have tried it on Outlook 03 and also 07 with the same symptoms.
I kind of understand the theory of it being trash but, this actually isn't
ME having the issue. It's MY issue because it is a vice president of my
company that has made it my issue. I try not to make a habit of telling
upper management that they are idiots for storing important stuff in their
inbox if at all possible. ;-)

Looks like I may have to just suck it up and pay MS to help me figure out
what I could possibly be doing wrong here. But I have 3 of my coworkers
looking into this now and they are all seeing the same symptoms that I am. I
just don't get it. This shouldn't be this hard. Thanks for your time.
 
B

Brett

As for why Microsoft doesn't include a deleted date? Well, you deleted the
item. You obviously didn't want it. Why add a field for an email that you
threw away. Before you shred your mail, do you stamp it with a timestamp?


And forgive me if I come off rude here but following that logic, why is
there a "date deleted" column in the Windows Recycle Bin? That field is just
there by default, you don't even have to jump through any hoops to get it to
display. These are both Microsoft products so that just sounds like a lame
excuse for laziness and inconsistency on Microsoft's part to me.

Not directed at you, I do appreciate your time and efforts here.
 
F

F. H. Muffman

Brett said:
OK, I was expecting to hear that I had to have Exchange for this "feature"
to
work. ;-) I have tried it on Outlook 03 and also 07 with the same
symptoms.

And, oddly, mine doesn't do it now too. Odd. Oh, no, there we go. It
updates the Modified Date in Hotmail and in Exchange, so it must be
something with the way Outlook talks to OSTs as opposed to PSTs. So, yes, I
guess you would need Exchange for it to happen. Is it a bug that it doesn't
work with PST? I'm not able to answer it, but at least you know that
Outlook will do it for messages stored in an OST.
I kind of understand the theory of it being trash but, this actually isn't
ME having the issue. It's MY issue because it is a vice president of my
company that has made it my issue. I try not to make a habit of telling
upper management that they are idiots for storing important stuff in their
inbox if at all possible. ;-)

In their Inbox? No, I wouldn't tell them that. In their Deleted Items box?
I'd have no issues telling anyone in the company that that is a horrifically
bad idea. In fact, the IT Department should write the email policies and
leave it up to the senior management if they want to follow it or not.
Looks like I may have to just suck it up and pay MS to help me figure out
what I could possibly be doing wrong here. But I have 3 of my coworkers
looking into this now and they are all seeing the same symptoms that I am.
I
just don't get it. This shouldn't be this hard. Thanks for your time.

Honestly, I never paid much attention to the situation. That isn't to say
that I haven't deleted mail by accident, but I've always known where I was
in the mailbox so I could look by date, or I was just reading the email so I
could just search by content.
 
F

F. H. Muffman

Brett said:
And forgive me if I come off rude here but following that logic, why is
there a "date deleted" column in the Windows Recycle Bin?

I don't know. But I don't know why it *should* be there. I mean, even when
I accidentally delete a file, I'm smart enough to be able to find it without
even looking at the date I deleted it because I just deleted it. I know
what it was and I can go get it back. If I accidentally deleted it along
with 5 other files, sorting by date isn't going to help since they'll all
have the same timestamp. Knowing where the file was is a much more useful
thing.
That field is just
there by default, you don't even have to jump through any hoops to get it
to
display. These are both Microsoft products so that just sounds like a
lame
excuse for laziness and inconsistency on Microsoft's part to me.

If it was the same group of people who wrote both products, I might agree
with you, but you're talking about a company of over 50k employees and
completely different product groups.
 
B

Brett

The situation was brought about by a malfunctioning keyboard (apparently a
stuck delete key) that completely emptied this user's inbox. I'd expect if
it was one or two emails, he could have found them easily and wouldn't have
even called me. Nice to know that you see the same thing with a pst file.
Thanks again for your time and input.
 

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