How to bulk delete old emails?

[MattOHC185]

I've been using Outlook 365 for a couple of years, on an Outlook Exchange account.

I just had an email telling me that my space is running out... Almost at 25gb!

So I've logged in to OWA to see about clearing out old emails (they go back to 2010, which is odd because I've only had an Exchange account since 2017) but it looks like there's no way to bulk delete old emails bar highlighting one, scrolling up the list and SHIFT+ Highlighting one further up the list.

But, it only lets me do a few at a time, and I seem to have a few hundred thousand emails in there.  It would take days to delete the old emails like this.

Is there another way!?

[#2]

You're better off setting a retention policy, which will automatically delete older messages or move them to the Online Archive (if such is enabled). Check with your IT support folks though, as we cannot know what kind of policies are configured in your organization.

If you plan to do thing via the client, you can create a search for messages received prior a given date (for example Received<06/15/2017), then select all > delete all.

[#3]

@Vasil MichevThanks for the reply!

However, how do I do the search!?  I only have a search within the mailbox and it doesn't have any advanced options for the search - just a simple text search.

And what is the Retention Policy - will it work retroactively?

[#4]

Hi, I’m on phone and cannot verify right now but I thought they fixed the ”clean-up tool” by now. Try using the old OWA interface as I think you can bulk delete there. See this conversation for a direct link, use a InPrivate/Incognito window
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/office-365/how-to-cleanup-storage-on-new-o365-outlook-interfa...

[#5]

@MattOHC185 I gave you example above on how you can do the search, just change the date as needed.

[#6]

@ChristianBergstromThanks, I have just tried that - essentially inserting '?path=/classic' after the owa URL, but that didn't actually get me to the classic interface in OWA, it seemed to make no difference at all :(

[#7]

Hi Vasil, thanks but this dodn't work. I used your suggestion in the Search box on both OWA and Outlook Desktop and it just says Search didn't yield any results.

[#8]

That wont work, use InPrivate or Incognito mode in browser. Copy paste the link.

[#9]

Hey :)

I just can't get it to work - I have done it in InCognito mode in Firefox, but it changes the URL path from "/owa/?path=/classic" to "/owa/#path=/classic"

[#10]

@MattOHC185 Well, I just had to try if this isn't working any longer but indeed it does.

This is from the classic view and the mailbox cleanup tool under settings. As you see I can bulk delete if choosing the bin/drop down.

For the record I only right clicked on the direct link in the previous conversation and "open InPrivate". Then entered the classic view.

[#11]

How weird that it won;t work for me. I've tried it in both Outlook OWA and my specific host's Exchange server (I don't think it's hosted with Outlook but I do ALSO have a 365 account, so tried both) and neither of them work for me.

Thank you for trying for me though.

[#12]

@MattOHC185  Use Search - received:1/1/2010..1/1/2018  - select all - if delete is not an option, move to a folder then delete the folder.  

The problem with bulk delete is the messages lazy load and its a lot of scrolling. There is/was a bug where you could not select all and delete - you needed to select all but the last message. (That bug might be fixed). 

Or use outlook desktop, its easier. 

[#13]

Just in case someone is looking for this functionality in the "new" OWA. From within OWA goto "Settings" -> "General" -> "Storage". You can empty the folders from here, can't empty Inbox though.

[#14]

You can right click on any folder and choose Empty folder, including the Inbox... but it empties the either folder, not just the oldest ones.