What settings do I need to change in my Outlook in odrer to actually
delete a message rather than just cross it over? Happens with my
IMAP
folder.
Thanks
yaro
That is how IMAP is supposed to work. When you delete a message
locally, you are merely *marking* that it will get deleted. It
doesn't get deleted from the server until your e-mail client sends a
Purge command.
With POP3, the item gets retrieved via the RETR command. The default
behavior by e-mail clients is to then follow with a DELE command to
delete that just retrieved item but users can reconfigure their e-mail
client to not send the DELE command (i.e., to leave the item on the
server). With IMAP, your e-mail client retrieves the item but does
nothing automatically to delete it from the server. Either you or an
action in the e-mail client will send the Purge command to the server.
You might want to add the Purge button to the toolbar if it isn't
already there.
I believe Outlook Express will automatically send the Purge command if
you change focus from the Inbox to some other folder, but not Outlook
(because users might have to go look at another e-mail before they can
decide to PERMANENTLY delete the item from the server). Outlook
Express is a personal e-mail client whereas Outlook was designed for a
corporate environment so they have different behaviors. Losing an
email from an IMAP account that had a picture of the new kittens isn't
as important as losing an email with a purchase order or telling you
about your code review meeting. Although you can permanently delete
in Outlook (by using Shift+Delete), the default behavior is to *move*
the deleted item into the Deleted Items folder (so it really has not
yet been deleted, just moved). This is a safety measure in the e-mail
client so users could retrieve their "deleted" items. There is no
Deleted Items folder for IMAP. That's is why a Purge is required as a
safety measure so users could undelete an item that they didn't mean
to delete. Once you or the e-mail client issues the Purge command,
the item gets permanently deleted (from the server) which is similar
to you deleting items from the Deleted Items folder or hitting
Shift+Del when using POP.
Wikipedia works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imap
If you want to know the commands used by IMAP, read the RFCs mentioned
in that article.
Google works, too:
http://www.google.com/search?q=+imap++purge
which found:
http://www.landaenterprises.com/support/email_imap_delete.asp