Deleting Email Messages

Deleting a message sounds simple — and it is — but what actually HAPPENS to a deleted message depends on a setting you control. Understanding that setting, and a few special cases, ensures you never lose a message you meant to keep. First, the basics: SmarterMail offers a few different methods for deleting messages:

You can select one or more messages and use the Delete button in the webmail interface. (When a message is open, the Delete button appears in the message toolbar as well.)
You can right-click on the message(s) and select "Delete" from the context menu that appears, or
You can use the Delete — or Del — key on your keyboard. (On a Mac, the Backspace/Delete key works too.)

Note: When deleting multiple messages at once, you'll be asked to confirm the deletion. Deleting a single message happens immediately, with no confirmation. Also, dragging a message to the Deleted Items folder is treated as a simple move — the message is placed in that folder, but your Delete Email Action (below) is not applied.

The Delete Email Action Setting

The action SmarterMail takes when you delete a message depends on the option you choose for the Delete Email Action setting, found on the Email card for your Account. These options include:

Move To Deleted Items Folder - This is the default behavior, and the one most people expect: when items are deleted they are moved to the Deleted Items folder. Think of it as a safety net — the message is out of sight, but recoverable until Deleted Items is emptied or purged. If the Deleted Items folder does not exist, it will be created automatically the first time you delete a message.
Permanently Delete - This option will permanently purge messages as soon as they're deleted. This keeps your mailbox lean and avoids a Deleted Items folder that grows forever, but it offers no second chances.

Note: When permanently deleting messages, the action is final. You will not be able to retrieve these messages later.

Mark as Deleted - When a message is deleted with this option, the message remains in its current folder, but is crossed out and marked as deleted. Nothing is actually removed until you purge: right-click in the messages list and choose Purge Marked as Deleted, and all items marked for deletion in that folder are permanently removed. (The Purge Marked as Deleted option only appears when your Delete Email Action is set to Mark as Deleted.) This mode suits people who want deletions to be deliberate, two-step operations — nothing disappears until you say so.

Note: Some folders don't follow the Delete Email Action: messages deleted from the Junk Email folder, the Deleted Items folder itself (or its subfolders), or the Drafts folder are always permanently deleted. For example, deleting a message that's already in Deleted Items removes it for good rather than moving it anywhere.

It is important to note that the Delete Email Action applies when deleting items through webmail. Deleting an item from Outlook or another email client will NOT necessarily use the setting that you choose, as each client has its own deletion behavior.

Note: When your email client connects to SmarterMail via POP3, any emails that are marked as deleted are automatically purged. To prevent this from happening, select the Move To Deleted Items Folder option to avoid accidentally purging deleted items.

Deleting All Messages in a Folder

To clear out an entire folder at once, right-click the folder in the folder tree — or use the folder's actions menu — and select Delete All in Folder. You'll be asked to confirm before anything happens, and the confirmation tells you exactly how many messages are affected. This is the quickest way to empty a bloated Junk Email or Deleted Items folder in one step. Just remember the special-folder rule above: emptying Junk Email or Deleted Items permanently removes those messages.

Undeleting Messages

Didn't mean to delete a message? As long as the message hasn't been permanently purged, you can get it back:

If your Delete Email Action is "Move To Deleted Items Folder" - Open the Deleted Items folder and find your message. Select it and choose Undelete — either from the right-click context menu or from the button that replaces Delete when viewing the message — and it will be restored. You can also simply drag the message back to the folder it came from.
If your Delete Email Action is "Mark as Deleted" - Select the crossed-out message(s) in the folder, then right-click and choose Undelete. The deleted mark is removed and the messages return to normal.

Note: Undelete cannot recover messages that have been permanently deleted — whether via the Permanently Delete action, a purge, or deletion from the Junk Email or Deleted Items folders. In addition, your system administrator can permanently remove the messages in your Deleted Items folder at any time without warning, so don't delete messages if you might want them later.

Effects of Folder Auto-Clean

Your system administrator may have established auto-clean policies that automatically delete older junk email, deleted items, and/or sent items when these folders get too large or when messages reach a certain age. For example, a policy might reduce the Deleted Items folder to 100 MB whenever it grows beyond 200 MB, or remove junk mail more than 30 days old. This means a message sitting in Deleted Items may be removed automatically, even if you never emptied the folder yourself. Depending on how these policies are configured, your administrator may have left the option available for you to override auto-clean settings and define your own rules. For more information, see Folder Auto-Clean.