Outlook Sub-Folder Deletion

[Kathy Stevens]

We are running Outlook 2016 to receive email from an IMAP webmail provider on a Windows 10 Pro 1909 PC.

We have tried to delete unused sub-folders from the Inbox, Trash, etc. folders.

Our approach has been to right click on the sub-folder we want to delete, look at the window that opens, and click on Delete Folder.

The target folder disappears for an instant and then reappears.

We have tried moving the unwanted sub-folder to Deleted Items and then use the method outlined above – no luck.

We have also tried to delete the folders from our email providers web site with no luck.

Any thoughts as to how to delete the sub-folders?

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[b]

Try IMAP folders, Query, Unsubscribe (before deleting them via folders pane & webmail):

Choose which IMAP account folders appear in Outlook

Windows 10 Pro version 21H2 build 19044.1149 + Microsoft 365 (group ASAP)

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Kathy Stevens

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[b]

I’ve managed to solve this now …

The email account is IMAP/SMTP and I’ve unsubscribed to the folders, which has enabled me to delete them. To do this, I right-clicked on the folder, went to IMAP and then selected the folders and unsubscribed from them.

Outlook folders keep reappearing after deletion

Windows 10 Pro version 21H2 build 19044.1149 + Microsoft 365 (group ASAP)

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Kathy Stevens

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[Kathy Stevens]

I will try again using your approach as soon as I find some free time.

Thanks

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b

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[Kathy Stevens]

Thanks.

Right-clicking on the folder and going to IMAP seems to work.

Now I just have to make sure that I do not delete folders that I need to keep.

 

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b

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[mn–]

Kathy Stevens wrote:

We have also tried to delete the folders from our email providers web site with no luck.

This looks like a possible server-side issue, then.

Could be a server bug, a configuration error (permissions), or a particularly weird “feature”. Seen all three.

May need to talk to the server admins (as in your mail provider’s backend technical folks) to get it fixed.

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Kathy Stevens

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[Kathy Stevens]

I do not think that it is a server-side issue.

Went on to the email server using a different computer and did not see the sub-folder chaos that I have in Outlook 2016.

Then I disconnected the troublesome computer from the internet, opened Outlook, and systematically deleted the unwanted sub-folders. No luck, the deleted folders simply popped back up while the computer was disconnected from the internet.

At this point, I am thinking about exporting the outlook files to a comma separated values file, edit the file, and then import it back into Outlook.

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[mn–]

Kathy Stevens wrote:

Went on to the email server using a different computer and did not see the sub-folder chaos that I have in Outlook 2016.

Oh, well then it’s pretty weird if the web interface was showing them… given you already tried to delete them from a web thing?

Without that part I’d have thought it just an Outlook problem. I’ve seen some pretty weird symptoms from Outlook client-side errors but…

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