How Do I Set Outlook to Delete Mail From the Server?

Outlook comes with numerous features, functionalities, and settings to allow a user to have a more personalized email experience. One such feature that Outlook provided to the users is the option to keep or delete email from the server. For this, there is an option (Leave a copy of the message on the server) provided at the time of IMAP or POP3 configuration. If you would have enabled this option, the emails will be stored on the server. While enabling this feature helps you recover your email if you accidentally deleted from your account, however, due to reason like lack of storage space, you may want to disable this feature. To know how to set Outlook to delete email from the server, you can go through the information provided below. But before that, let us know about IMAP and POP3 internet email protocols.

About POP3 and IMAP

POP3 and IMAP are the two most commonly used Internet mail protocols for retrieving email. They are supported by almost all modern email clients and web servers. The main difference between POP3 and IMAP is that the former requires only the currently connected client to be linked to the mailbox; whereas the latter allows simultaneous access by multiple email clients. This means that while POP3 based accounts download the email to your computer, IMAP based accounts generally do not store emails on your computer and keep them on the mail server until you delete it.

So, now as you know about the IMAP and POP3 protocols, it will be easier for you to follow the information provided below to delete emails from the Server in Outlook.

Guide to Configure Outlook to Delete Emails from the Server

To set up Outlook to remove emails from the server is very simple. All you need to do is disable the Leave a copy of the message on the server option in the server settings of your Outlook program. Here are the steps that you will need to follow.

1. To begin with, you will first need to launch Outlook on your computer.
2. Once you have opened the Outlook on your computer, you will need to click on the File option. This will open a drop-down menu on your screen.
3. From the drop-down menu that appears on your screen, you will need to go to the Account settings > Account settings
4. In the Account settings window, you will need to go to your current POP3 account and click on the Change Doing so will take you to the next screen.

NOTE: The window which will open up on your screen will display the type of email account you have on your Outlook client. You will need to check under Type.

5. Now, on the next screen, you will need to click on the More settings This will take you to the next window.
6. In the More Settings window that appears on your screen, you will need to click on the Advanced
7. Under the Advanced tab, you will see the Leave a copy of the message on the server option enabled for your email account. To disable this feature, you will need to click on the already selected checkbox next to the Leave a copy of the message on the server

NOTE: Instead of disabling the Leave a copy of the message on the server option, if you want you can select the checkbox next to the following options on your screen (if available)

• Remove from server after “_” days.
• Remove from server when deleted from Deleted items.

8. As you will deselect the checkbox, a copy of the emails will not be stored on the servers anymore.

NOTE: If you will disable the Leave a copy of the message on the server feature in your Outlook program, you will not be able to access your email from multiple computers.

So, these are the steps that you will need to follow to configure your Outlook email program to delete emails from the server.