Outlook 2007 Purge IMAP items marked for deletion

There are two ways you can configure your Outlook client to deal with purging deleted emails.  Unfortunately by default Microsoft does not have this feature turned on.

  1. Click a folder in your IMAP e-mail account.
  2. On the Edit menu, point to Purge Deleted Messages.
  3. Click Purge Options. The Internet E-mail Settings dialog box opens.
  4. On the General tab, under Purge Options, select the Purge items when switching folders while online check box.

NOTE: You must be working online with the mail server for this feature to work.

Manually purge deleted items

To permanently delete the items marked for deletion, do the following:

  1. Click a folder in your IMAP e-mail account.
  2. On the Edit menu, point to Purge Deleted Messages.
  3. Do one of the following:Outlook-2007-purge-items
    • Click Purge Marked Items in “folder”. Only items marked for deletion in the folder that you are in are purged from the IMAP mail server.
    • Click Purge Marked Items in “e-mail account”. All items marked for deletion in any folder for this IMAP e-mail account are purged from the IMAP mail server.
    • Click Purge Marked Items in All Accounts. All items marked for deletion in any folder for any IMAP e-mail account are purged from the IMAP mail server.

NOTE: You must be working online with the mail server for this feature to work.

TIP: Add the Purge command to a toolbar. On the Tools menu, click Customize. On the Commands tab, under Categories, click Edit. Under Commands, drag the Purge command to a toolbar.