Messages in Archive Folder Accidentally Deleted

[Guest]

At the absolute insistence of our IT people, and with much reluctance, I
moved my emails over into an archive file. The only way this works for me is
to move everything (not just old emails) - i.e., I now have my email filing
structure set up in the archive folder and I move anything I need to keep
directly into archive. Otherwise, as I understood it, I was going to need to
keep duplicate file structures in my inbox and in the archive folder, meaning
I'd have to look in 2 (or more) places everytime I needed something.

So, this has been working fine, with a few minor (but annoying!) exceptions.
However, there is one big problem - when I delete something from an archive
folder, it's completely gone - it doesn't go into deleted items, or into my
recycle bin, or anywhere else that I can see. A few times I have accidentally
clicked delete instead of "move to" and I've completely lost the message.
There's no warning or error message, it's just gone.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this? I'd prefer not to have an error
message, as this would be really irritating when I really do want to delete
something. Best case scenario would be if the messages are going somewhere
that I can track them down. I have trouble believing that they just
completely delete with no warning?!?

Any suggestions most welcome!
Jen

 

[DL]

Assuming you are using pop mail or at least *.pst file & not exchange;
The archive is designed to move old mail to the archive using the settings
you have chosen e.g. older than 6 months.
The Archive folders will mirror your default Mail folders

I don't quite understand why you are moving all data to the Archive.
You can have both your default Personal Folder open, and the Archive file.

I would hazard that IT was wanting people to reduce the size of the default
mail folder, failing to do this if you are using a pre OL2003 version could
lead to total loss / curruption of the data file, as there is a size
limitation, which also applies to the Archive.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, that's exactly what would happen - I would get basically two file
systems, one in my archived mail with mail >6 months old (or whatever I
choose), and another in my normal inbox. I don't want two separate filing
systems! This is a total PITA since if I'm not sure when an email came in, I
now have to check in two places = double the work. I'd rather just keep
everything in one place, which means I'm stuck with keeping it all in the
archive folders.

(Sorry for the vent...I just can't believe there isn't a better way of doing
this. I can't be the only one who has to go find things going back many
months or even years on a regular basis!!).

That said, I'd really like to figure out how to recover emails that are
accidentally deleted from the archive folder. Does anyone know where these
deleted files are going?

 

[Brian Tillman]

At the absolute insistence of our IT people, and with much
reluctance, I moved my emails over into an archive file. The only way
this works for me is to move everything (not just old emails) - i.e.,
I now have my email filing structure set up in the archive folder and
I move anything I need to keep directly into archive. Otherwise, as I
understood it, I was going to need to keep duplicate file structures
in my inbox and in the archive folder, meaning I'd have to look in 2
(or more) places everytime I needed something.

You can't use an archive PST and not have to add it to your mail profile in
order to see its contents.

So, this has been working fine, with a few minor (but annoying!)
exceptions. However, there is one big problem - when I delete
something from an archive folder, it's completely gone - it doesn't
go into deleted items, or into my recycle bin, or anywhere else that
I can see.

It goes into the Deleted Items folder in the archive.

A few times I have accidentally clicked delete instead of
"move to" and I've completely lost the message. There's no warning or
error message, it's just gone.

Perhaps I don't understand exactly what you have set up. Click
Tools>Options>Other>AutoArchive. If the archive PST you're talking about
the one listed there?

 

[Guest]

THANK YOU!!

I have so many folders in there that I completely missed the Deleted Items
folder. I didn't remember that it creates a separate folder for the archive.

I'm so glad the messages aren't gone!!

Thanks again,
Jen

 

[DL]

BTW what version of OL are you using?

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, that's exactly what would happen - I would get basically two file
systems, one in my archived mail with mail >6 months old (or whatever I
choose), and another in my normal inbox. I don't want two separate filing
systems! This is a total PITA since if I'm not sure when an email came in,
I
now have to check in two places = double the work. I'd rather just keep
everything in one place, which means I'm stuck with keeping it all in the
archive folders.

(Sorry for the vent...I just can't believe there isn't a better way of
doing
this. I can't be the only one who has to go find things going back many
months or even years on a regular basis!!).

That said, I'd really like to figure out how to recover emails that are
accidentally deleted from the archive folder. Does anyone know where these
deleted files are going?

 

[Guest]

Maybe that's the problem...I'm stuck on Outlook 2000. Yuck!

 

[DL]

Then allmost certainly your IT dept. is concerned about size of the pst, it
can totally fail at 2gb, and you can get problems from 1.6gb, which is why
they want you to keep a seperate archive. NB the size limitation applies to
all and each data file. - if the pst goes oversize you will lose data in any
recovery.

I currently have 6 archives, and I dont have any problem in looking at old
mail, or using a search tool if I need, but then I have numerous folders
added in which I have filed mail