Outlook 2007 and webmail: Emptying trash in Outlook does not empty trash in Webmail

Question

I use Outlook for my emails. I have noticed recently that when I delete emails and have emptied the deleted items folder these deleted mails appear in the trash folder of my online email account. Any clues as to why this has started to happen please?

Answer 1

3 questions and a possible solution:

1. What is the domain of your email address? Different webmail sites will handle trash differently.

2. What happened previously when you deleted messages in Outlook?

3. Are you connected to your webmail using a POP connection or an IMAP connection?

Possible explanation:

Most webmail sites these days do not count items in your trash against your total mail quota, and empty the trash at regular intervals (gmail, for example, deletes messages after 30 days in the trash folder).

Depending on how your email client is set up (POP or IMAP) it may be sending the delete notification up to the mail server which then, instead of permanently deleting the messages, simply moves them to the trash for eventual automated deletion at a predetermined time.