An Email Service That Deleted Emails When YOU Delete Them?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Is there an email service that deletes emails from the "deleted items" ONLY when you manually do it?

Gmail's 30 day is awful, I don't even know what Hotmail's is.

Although I could "archive" things on Gmail, I mainly use Windows Live Mail as a front end so having such an archive wouldn't work that great when I am used to clicking the delete button.

Thanks

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Why not just stop throwing things in the bin if you're going to need them later? That seems like the simplest answer to me.

[Shaun N.]

As I say to my users, Deleted items is not a place to store emails, If you want to keep those emails create a folder and place them in there. We force the deleted items to empty when closing the application.

[Kami-]

Why not just stop throwing things in the bin if you're going to need them later? That seems like the simplest answer to me.

This or use a desktop client & download locally.

[+BudMan MVC]

"As I say to my users, Deleted items is not a place to store emails"

"Why not just stop throwing things in the bin if you're going to need them later?"

QFT!

[nytiger73]

All web based email services have a certain number of days they allow you to keep emails in your deleted items folder. I think Hotmail might be 15 days. It is assumed that Deleted Items are unwanted and will be purged. As others have said, either make a folder with saved or archived items, or use a mail client and download your mail with a client, but don't forget to back your stuff up.

[Glassed Silver]

If you have an email provider you can set the "keep" times for each individual folder, then use that.

I don't know about Windows Live Mail and Gmail, but let me tell you how I would do it with my setup (GMX (gmx.com) & Apple Mail)

a) create a new folder called "Sticky Trash" for example :laugh:

b) set the "keep" duration to unlimited

c) Go to Mail and remap the trash folder to the selected folder "Sticky Trash" via the menubar (Folder > Use selected folder for > Trash).

From now on, deleting mails in Apple Mail would move them to that folder we created.

If you want to empty it manually only, make sure your mail client doesn't auto-delete!

I don't know whether this will work for you, but that'd be the kind of way to do it I guess.

Glassed Silver:mac

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

As others have stated above: 'Deleted items' is for emails I want to delete. The 30 day grace period Gmail gives you is more than enough to figure out whether or not I've accidentally deleted something.

If I want to keep an item I leave it in the inbox, making use of Gmail's labels and starring system to categorise them.

Asking for an email service with unlimited grace period for items in the trash folder is akin to using the Windows Recycle Bin as legitimate file storage option if you ask me.

[xendrome]

Face Palm..... make a label or folder and put them in there...

[sc302 Veteran]

"As I say to my users, Deleted items is not a place to store emails"

"Why not just stop throwing things in the bin if you're going to need them later?"

QFT!

Again, QFT!!

Do you put things in your trash at home to store important things? The same applies here, but googles garbage man only comes around once a month instead of once or twice a week...be happy it is that long.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Since you're using Gmail, why not just use the "Archive" button instead? Hides the emails from you, but still allows them to be found by searching (or by looking in the "all mail" tag). I don't delete anything except newsletters from my gmail. Everything just gets archived.

[Nagisan]

Delete means to remove, why would you press the remove button on something you want to keep?

[ANON86364]

"As I say to my users, Deleted items is not a place to store emails"

"Why not just stop throwing things in the bin if you're going to need them later?"

QFT!

Again, QFT!!

Do you put things in your trash at home to store important things? The same applies here, but googles garbage man only comes around once a month instead of once or twice a week...be happy it is that long.

QFT!

[episode]

I've had so many clients that do the same thing.

Has to do with when mail limits were set so low they couldn't keep many mails, and the deleted box was not counted towards the limit.

Very hard habit for them to break.

[Kelxin]

Hostmonster = win.

They have unlimited data hosting, unlimited e-mail box sizes, support full IMAP, all for the same price and have the additional spam filtering power of Google for $1 per month (cheaper than Business gmail).

[Sir Topham Hatt]

I use email the same as I use the Recycle Bin.

With email, delete things I want to delete. However a few weeks later I may need to check back on something which I thought (and 99% of the time) has no value. As stated above, it just seems to be a habit I need to break. I'm sure Hotmail used to be longer than 15 days?

However, well done to those people who repeated the same question as "why delete something you don't want?". Answer: Because at the time I am not aware I needed it. That's like having a PC without a recycle bin. . . I could see major uproar if Microsoft decided to remove that feature. Therefore despite seemingly being a silly question, it has more depth than the two planks.

[Shaun N.]

Nope, I empty it daily.

[SirEvan]

Guys wait. So you mean, that if I really need something...like, my tax documents, I shouldn't put them in the recycling bin on Mondays? Can't I just call the recycling center and ask them to return them? is that not what a trash bin is for? saving things? hmmm...

[PhilUK]

Well I guess this is one user who lives up to his name... what a spoon!

On the positive side, it's users like him who keep the IT Support industry in business. We frequently have to carry out restores at work due to users who use Deleted Items in Outlook to store all read emails. :argh:

Phil

[Glassed Silver]

Guys, if you're not willing to help, just don't derive the thread.

Either you contribute or you don't.

Repeating the same old song over and over again doesn't help and as Mr Spoon pointed out, clearly this is not for stuff that is important, but for things that could be convenient to be checked on later on again.

Many things fly into some people's inboxes that they are not sure of whether it's usual "crap" or potentially of some use within the next couple of weeks or so.

Think about your usual newsletters that you might have subscribed to willingly.

You could say that some of them might have a coupon and when you check on prices and find your webshop you subscribed to has a good offer, you might wanna check whether you have a coupon, too.

Such mails I usually don't HAVE to keep around, so they rest quite well in the trash.

Losing them wouldn't harm, having them isn't so crucial to clog up all your nicely arranged, sorted and stored away mail and you definitely want to never see them again after they hit their date when there's no more use for them whatsoever.

A usage scenario might seem off and insane to you, but often the weirdest requests have some actual need behind them, so instead of telling a thousand times why USUALLY a request would result in bad computing behavior/risks/etc, here are three things I think that seem a little more helpful:

1. Say what the risks are - fair enough if you're one of the first few to say this, at latest when the OP acknowledges the risks/problems involved in his or her request there's no more point in repeating the broken record sans doing one of these things:
   
2. Help, try to tackle the requested issue and provide/guess a solution
   
3. Tell where to find a solution
   

I swear I know this problem of people apparently not even trying to find out how I could possibly want some way of solving something.

It annoys me to no end to read the same response by tons of people whilst the actual problem stays untackled - AFTER acknowledging what the risks are.

Hope my reply from earlier might give you some direction, Mr Spoon.

Glassed Silver:mac

[Shaun N.]

So create a folder called "could be useful" and drag it into there, The deleted items folder or recycle bin is NOT somewhere you should store something you may want.

[PGHammer]

Guys, if you're not willing to help, just don't derive the thread.

Either you contribute or you don't.

Repeating the same old song over and over again doesn't help and as Mr Spoon pointed out, clearly this is not for stuff that is important, but for things that could be convenient to be checked on later on again.

Many things fly into some people's inboxes that they are not sure of whether it's usual "crap" or potentially of some use within the next couple of weeks or so.

Think about your usual newsletters that you might have subscribed to willingly.

You could say that some of them might have a coupon and when you check on prices and find your webshop you subscribed to has a good offer, you might wanna check whether you have a coupon, too.

Such mails I usually don't HAVE to keep around, so they rest quite well in the trash.

Losing them wouldn't harm, having them isn't so crucial to clog up all your nicely arranged, sorted and stored away mail and you definitely want to never see them again after they hit their date when there's no more use for them whatsoever.

A usage scenario might seem off and insane to you, but often the weirdest requests have some actual need behind them, so instead of telling a thousand times why USUALLY a request would result in bad computing behavior/risks/etc, here are three things I think that seem a little more helpful:

1. Say what the risks are - fair enough if you're one of the first few to say this, at latest when the OP acknowledges the risks/problems involved in his or her request there's no more point in repeating the broken record sans doing one of these things:
   
2. Help, try to tackle the requested issue and provide/guess a solution
   
3. Tell where to find a solution
   

I swear I know this problem of people apparently not even trying to find out how I could possibly want some way of solving something.

It annoys me to no end to read the same response by tons of people whilst the actual problem stays untackled - AFTER acknowledging what the risks are.

Hope my reply from earlier might give you some direction, Mr Spoon.

Glassed Silver:mac

The issue comes up likely due to someone that migrated from POP3 to IMAP4 (usually with a change in mail client software).

I'm a long-time (in fact, charter) US GMail user - however, my preferred e-mail client (Outlook) initially required special handling to deal with GMail (through Outlook 2007, in fact). However, this changed with Outlook 2010 (both x32 and x64, which is the flavor I use) - Outlook 2010 x64 not only supports IMAP4 on a co-equal basis with both POP3 and Exchange, it even supports IMAP4 auto-negotiation for GMail. Because GMail includes an Archived Items folder by default, anything I'm not sure of goes there first before final deletion; contrariwise, items I'm sure I want gone can be, in fact, deleted in place (just as if I were using local file-deletion or the browser-based interface for GMail). This is, as far as I know, unique to Outlook among IMAP4 clients - and why it has been my IMAP4/GMail client of choice (until WinRT Live Mail came along with Windows 8).

[Glassed Silver]

So create a folder called "could be useful" and drag it into there, The deleted items folder or recycle bin is somewhere you should store something you may want.

Not everyone wants to clog up their folder structure with folders they might only need once or twice a month :p

As I said, my main gripe was with the people's attitude towards Mr Spoon's problem, not the few hints to actually tackle this in some way. :)

Your reply is a valid option maybe, so good on you posting it for sure! (Y)

Glassed Silver:mac