Important Changes to your Outlook mailbox (M365) for deleted items
Starting Monday, July 15, Microsoft will begin charging education customers for M365 storage. In response, ITS is updating Outlook policies to automatically clean up deleted items in employee mailboxes to manage storage more effectively.
Deleting Items in Outlook:
- Soft Deletion: When you delete an item in Outlook, it goes into your Deleted Items folder.
- Permanent Deletion: After 30 days, items are automatically moved from your Deleted Items folder to the Deletions subfolder under the Recoverable Items folder. This also happens if you manually empty your Deleted Items folder.
- ITS Recovery Period: After an additional 30 days, items are moved to an area where ITS can recover them for up to one year.
- Final Deletion: After one year, deleted items are no longer available.
Note: Do not use the Deleted Items folder to store important information. Create another folder for this purpose.
Recovering Items:
- From Deleted Items Folder: You can still view and move items back into another folder.
- From Deletions Subfolder: Use the “Recover Deleted Items” option to retrieve items back to your Deleted Items folder.
- ITS Recovery: To recover an item no longer visible within a one-year period, request recovery via the ITS Service Desk.
Outlook Policies:
- 30-Day Retention Policy: Applied to your Deleted Items folder and Junk Email folder. After 30 days, items are moved to the Deletions subfolder.
- Never Expire Policy: Applied to all other Outlook folders. Items are never deleted unless you actively delete them.
Reminder for When You Leave the College:
- Mailbox Deletion: Your M365 mailbox, including all mail, calendars, and contacts, is deleted entirely two years after you leave the College.
- Out-of-Office (OOO) Messages: Set your OOO message before leaving, including for leaves of absence. Messages sent to your address will not receive an OOO notification, and in the case of leaving the College, the sender will not receive a bounce-back message for one year.
- Manager Requests for OOO Messages: If an employee leaves without setting their OOO, the manager can submit an ITS service request with the employee’s name and the text for the OOO message.
For any questions related to deleting, recovering, or archiving items, please contact the ITS Service Desk at [email protected] or call 905-735-2211 x7642