emails go to delete folder

Question

emails go to delete folder

Derek Squirell 0

all emails go directly to delete folder instead of inbox

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Diana Mariz 11,110 Independent Advisor

Hi Derek,

To further isolate the issue, please check your Outlook rules, sweep, and junk settings, and remove anything that auto‑deletes mail. Because usually, emails going straight to Deleted Items almost always mean a rule or filter is misconfigured.

Albert Fenech 0 Reputation points

2026-10-16T06:48:53.37+00:00

Hi Derek

All the suggestions have been looked at and still happens. This only happens on SOME emails.

Albet
Hornblower409 16,975 Reputation points

2026-10-17T07:45:14.3766667+00:00

@Albert Fenech said

All the suggestions have been looked at and still happens.

I understand that you have the same or similar issue to the one discussed in this thread. But you will probably not get any help by adding to an old post.

I would suggest that you start a new thread using the "Ask a question" button at the top of this page to create a new Question and include the details for your specific problem and what steps you have already tried to fix it.

This provides much higher visibility to your issue than adding on to an existing post, which is only seen by people who are already following this question.

(You can put the link for this page in your new Question for reference)

Answer 2

In Outlook.com or Outlook on the web, all mail going straight to Deleted Items is usually caused by a rule or filter outside Outlook, or by mailbox/message-handling settings.

Use these steps to troubleshoot:

Check Outlook.com rules and sweep settings
1. In Outlook.com, go to Settings (gear) > Mail > Rules.
2. Delete or disable any rule that moves all messages (or most senders) to Deleted Items.
3. In Settings > Mail > Message handling, review any automatic handling options (such as Sweep or other commands) that might be moving messages to Deleted Items and adjust or remove them.
Check Junk and message-handling configuration
1. Go to Settings > Mail > Junk email.
2. Review Incoming mail handling. If it was recently changed, toggle it (for example, set to Strict, save, sign out, sign back in, then set back to Standard and save). This reset has been shown to correct misrouted junk/spam handling in Outlook.com.
3. Confirm that no domains or addresses are incorrectly listed in Blocked senders and domains.
Check the provider’s webmail (if Outlook.com is connected to another mailbox) If Outlook.com is pulling mail from another provider (for example, an ISP or corporate account), sign in to that provider’s webmail:
1. Look for any filters or rules that move messages to Trash/Deleted before Outlook.com receives them.
2. Remove or adjust any such filters. As seen in a similar case, a server-side filter moving “everything to Trash” caused all mail to appear only in Deleted Items in Outlook.
Manually move and monitor
1. Move a few legitimate messages from Deleted Items back to Inbox.
2. Send test messages from different accounts and watch whether they stay in Inbox or are immediately moved. If they move again, re-check rules/filters both in Outlook.com and at the source provider.

If the problem persists after removing all rules/filters and resetting junk handling, contact the email provider’s support (Outlook.com support and, if applicable, the external provider) so they can check for hidden or server-side policies affecting delivery.

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