Deleting a Large Number of E-mail Messages

In OWA:

To increase the number of messages per page:

1. Access OWA.
2. In the list of button bars at the left bottom of the screen, select the Options button.
3. In the Message Options section, click the down-triangle to the right of the "Number of items to display per page".
4. Select the desired number; i.e., 25.
5. Click the "Save and Close" button.
6. Open the Deleted Items folder
7. Delete all of the messages there by using the "Empty Deleted Items" tool (to the immediate right of the Search tool--which is pictured with a magnifying glass).
8. Open the Inbox folder (or other folder)
9. Click OK in response to the pop-up message "Do you want to permanently delete the selected items?"
10. Open the Inbox (or other folder)
11. Highlight the first unwanted message
12. SHIFT-click (i.e., hold down a SHIFT key and use the left mouse button) the last visible unwanted message to highlight all of the messages in between
13. Click the Delete tool (pictured with an "X") to delete the highlighted messages by moving them to the Deleted Items folder
14. Repeat steps 6-8 until all unwanted messages are deleted.
15. Repeat steps 5 through 9, emptying the Deleted Items folder, until all unwanted messages in various folders are removed from your mailbox.

Be sure to review the messages in the Junk Mail folder as well as the Sent Items folder as these items are also charged against your disk quota on the Exchange e-mail server.

In Outlook:

1. Open the Deleted Items folder
2. Delete all of the messages there by using the "Empty 'Deleted Items folder'" tool (to the immediate right of the Delete tool--which is pictured with "X".
3. Open to the Inbox folder (or other folder)
4. SHIFT-click (i.e., hold down a SHIFT key and use the left mouse button) the last unwanted message to highlight all messages in between
5. SHIFT-click the Delete tool (pictured with "X") to remove the messages without moving them to the Deleted Items folder
6. Click OK in response to the pop-up message "Do you want to permanently delete the selected items?"
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 until all unwanted messages are removed from your mailbox.

Be sure to review the messages in the Junk Mail folder as well as the Sent Items folder as these items are also charged against your disk quota on the Exchange e-mail server.

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Last Updated: July 28, 2008