How to Auto-Delete Emails in Microsoft Outlook

After Gmail, Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email provider out there. The enterprises love the Microsoft Outlook due to its close integration with the Office 365 package. As for consumers, Microsoft has done a commendable job with storage, cross-platform availability, and features.

The Outlook app is available on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Web. The company purchased the popular Acompli app and Sunrise calendar to speed-up the development of the mobile app. In short, there are adequate reasons to use Outlook over the rivals for personal use. But with only 15GB of free storage, you might run out of storage. And with the growing trend of unnecessary marketing emails and spam, it’s harder than ever to filter out the relevant emails from the email junk.

Microsoft does offer Focused Inbox function, but it’s limited to filtering out relevant emails for the user. Another useful addition is Outlook Rules. It’s Outlook’s version of IFTTT. With Rules, one can create multiple automation to move certain emails to archive or delete the mails section.

In this post, we will guide you through the Outlook Rules function, and we will create some rules to auto-delete and auto-archive emails from Outlook. The post will also cover another Outlook bonus trick to unsubscribe irrelevant emails from one place. Let’s get started.

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Create Auto-Delete Rule from the Email

First, the Rules function is only available on Outlook Windows/Mac app and Outlook Web. In this post, I will mention the steps for the Outlook web version.

Step 1: Open Outlook web and sign in using Microsoft account credentials.

Step 2: Select an irrelevant email and open it.

Step 3: Tap on the three-dot menu and select Create Rule.

Step 4: Create a rule to move the messages from the sender to Deleted Items.

After that, all the emails from the sender will move to the deleted inbox directly. You can still access them from the Deleted Items menu in the folders.

Create Auto-Delete Rules from Outlook Settings

The scenario above moves all the emails from the sender to deleted items, but what if someone wants to delete emails with certain subjects or certain keywords from the message body.

For example, I don’t want to receive the loan offers, Coronavirus updates, or any other marketing junk from my bank. However, I do want to receive the monthly statement and credit card bill in my mail. So, how to set up such rules? Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open Outlook web and head to Settings.

Step 2: View all Outlook settings, and it will pop out the dedicated settings menu.

Step 3: Select the Rules option and select Add new rule.

Step 4: Let’s name it Bank Rules and add a condition.

Step 5: Add keywords that no longer are relevant to you, I have added the message terms such as Loan, EMI, etc.

Step 6: Create a rule to move all the emails to the delete folder and hit save.

Now, whenever you receive the emails with Loan, EMI, or Important keywords, they will be automatically moved to the delete folder.

Let’s create another useful rule. Shall we? Every company out there is sending out Coronavirus-related emails to users. While I applaud their efforts, sometimes it gets tiring to read news about the deadly virus daily. With the help of Outlook Rules, you can auto-delete those mail before it reaches you.

Step 1: Open Outlook web and navigate to Settings > Mail> Rules.

Step 2: Let’s give the new rule ‘Coronavirus’ name and add conditions.

Step 3: Add conditions such as if the message body includes keyword ‘Coronavirus,’ ‘COVID-19,’ and then move those emails to the delete folder.

Outlook Rules are a powerful function, and the possibilities are endless. Here is how I use it. Whenever I’m on a holiday trip, I create a rule to move all the incoming emails to a ‘During Travel’ folder and never get interruption during the family time.

Unsubscribe Irrelevant Email Senders

The auto-delete function is useful when you want to filter out relevant emails from the bogus ones. But what if you want to stop receiving emails from the sender completely. Well, you can always use the unsubscribe option from the email.

But finding that tiny unsubscribe button in every mail can be time-consuming and boring. Thankfully, with Outlook Web, you can see all the email senders with a unsubscribe button in one place.

Step 1: Open Outlook web and head to Settings.

Step 2: Navigate to Mail > Subscriptions.

Step 3: Here, you will see the list of email senders with a big unsubscribe button.

Step 4: Unsubscribe the unnecessary ones from the menu, and you can also tap on the three-dot menu to block the sender.

I use this feature once in a quarter to remove the irrelevant emails from the list.

Use Outlook Like a Pro

Microsoft Outlook packs an excellent Rules function. You can use it to auto-delete, auto-archive, incoming mails, move them to different folders for a certain time, and even unsubscribe the unnecessary sender from the single menu. The solution mentioned above has worked like a wonder for us. Have you figured out a different solution that doesn’t involve any third-party app?

Next up: Outlook lets you create custom signature for better personalization. Read the post below to learn how to set it.