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  • #2251568

    Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

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    by drmweaver ·

    I have a user that is deleting all their emails whether they’ve been read or not, they just go and delete them. Is there a setting on exchange or in outlook that I can set that will disable their ability to delete emails???

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    • #2509528

      You’re Kidding!

      by davidh48 ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      How would you like to be forced to open all the junk letters you get via the USPS?

      Choosing to accept and read an email or not is a right, not a responsibility.

      If a person refuses to open emails which are mandated by an authority, the issue is for that individuals’ manager and Personnel; it is NOT a technical issue.

      • #2509502

        Well said David

        by cynic 53 ·

        In reply to You’re Kidding!

        This issue is like attending Meetings at work. Some e-mails are part and parcel of one’s duties and are as compulsory as answering the phone to clients and customers etc. Others , as with Meetings, can be purely social or advisory.

        As David says, there are other means of a Disciplinary nature for Management to deal with staff who do not perform their duties properly.

        • #2509497

          simple solution…

          by salfresco ·

          In reply to Well said David

          Get rid of the guy!

        • #2510376

          That’s a punishment worse than death!

          by sarah e ·

          In reply to Well said David

          If I had to read every email that landed in my mailbox, I’d never get anything done. Unless the title tells me that:

          a) It’s a project I’m involved with.
          b) It’s something I need to read right now.
          or
          c) It’s from someone I work with regularly.

          It will sit in my mailbox unread, and will eventually get deleted unless I find a spare five minutes to ‘scan’ the mail (not often). I work on the premise that if it’s important enough, someone will call me about it…

          Delete is a good thing.

      • #2509340

        No you are!

        by itcowboy ·

        In reply to You’re Kidding!

        Opening an email may be a choice you have, reading it another one. Deleting an email is plain wrong! As an employee you are responsible to read emails if that is part of your duty. In addition, any email recieved on a company account is company property, and an employee does not have a right to delete any of them. Third, there should be retention policies in place for all electronic communication, as recent laws were enacted that requires discovery. If an employee is deleting emails, maybe they should be handled by management, but in addition, management should make sure they cannot delete emails to ensure the company is following current laws. Therefore it is the responsibility of IT to ensure emails cannot be deleted and archive as necessary.

        • #2490499

          Depending on employees for regulatory requirements

          by wdewey ·

          In reply to No you are!

          I don’t know that I would depend on employees for regulatory requirements. I have a lot of good people at my office, but I wouldn’t bet my career on them following my guidelines. If you are looking to ensure compliance, then purchase software that will archive all emails before the user sees them.

          Bill

    • #2509474

      It’s called Outlook Folder Permissions

      by aceofjrspades ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      These features require Microsoft Exchange.

      If your administrator has set up a public folder, you may have permission to use some or all of the folders within the public folder. If someone has shared one of their private folders with you or designated you as a delegate for that folder, then you have permission to perform certain activities in that folder. The extent of the activities you can perform in a public folder, shared private folder, or folder you are a delegate for, depends on your role (or combination of permissions) in that folder, as described next. With the Owner permission level (or role) You can
      Create, read, modify, and delete all items and files, and create subfolders. As the folder owner, you can change the permission levels others have for the folder. (Does not apply to delegates.)
      With the Publishing Editor permission level (or role) You can Create, read, modify, and delete all items and files, and create subfolders. (Does not apply to delegates.)
      With the Editor permission level (or role) You can Create, read, modify, and delete all items and files.
      With the Publishing Author permission level (or role) You can Create and read items and files, create subfolders, and modify and delete items and files you create. (Does not apply to delegates.)
      With the Author permission level (or role) You can Create and read items and files, and modify and delete items and files you create.
      With the Contributor permission level (or role) You can Create items and files only. The contents of the folder do not appear. (Does not apply to delegates.)
      With the Reviewer permission level (or role) You can Read items and files only.
      With the Custom permission level (or role) You can Perform activities defined by the folder owner. (Does not apply to delegates.)
      With the None permission level (or role) You can You have no permission. You can’t open the folder.

      Note With author or editor permissions, a delegate has send-on-behalf-of permission. Sent messages contain both the manager’s and delegate’s names. Message recipients see the manager’s name in the Sent On Behalf Of box and the delegate’s name in the From box.

    • #2509469

      Deleting from where ?

      by capn_crispy ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      Aren’t all emails retained on the email server ? So whether they delete them from their inbox or not, the emails are never really gone, are they ?
      – or maybe this *is* a personnel issue…

      • #2509454

        deleting emails

        by bguthro ·

        In reply to Deleting from where ?

        as others stated this requires exchange and AD.
        you need to qualify from where. local PST, user mailbox, public folder. you can easily manage public folders. on local pst or network mailbox you could remove delete via policy’s but I forsee a world of hurt and administration on your horizon. you did not state why… if this is a corporate policy for legal needs then look to 3rd party products such as Zantaz EAS. which can give you more flex in managing email

    • #2509443

      Just a thought, but maybe…

      by drupp ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      Maybe they are reading the email in the preview window and clicked “no” on the read receipt pop-up. They may have also set the popup to “no receipt and don’t ask again” mode.

    • #2509417

      Don’t you already have this question open?

      by charliespencer ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

    • #2509412

      Be careful what you wish for….

      by scott.j.weaver ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      I would agree to take another approach. Do not make it mandatory to open an e-mail. From a security perspective, this is not a good practice. Any e-mail that is not from a recognizable party, or the title is suspicious (e.g. I love you) should be deleted w/out being opened. If you recognize the sender, and have contact info on them, a user could check first.

      If the user is deleting work e-mails, then counsuling them would be my first move. Remember, the user cannot deny receiving the e-mail, the servers and sender has proof of the user recieving the e-mail.

      • #2509304

        You have got to be kidding

        by billwas ·

        In reply to Be careful what you wish for….

        Worked in a large Government office and while working on a project kept getting “You got mail”. Upon opening same it was about a woman changing her last name – marriage I assume. Deleted same. About a minute later got another one – same thing. I was so disturbed that I responded to all. “Please no more spam”.

        All of a sudden was swamped with I agree, etc.

        IT had to shut down and restrict – To All”

        Mission accomplished. Not all business email is business.

        • #2494305

          Opening e-mail

          by phoenix.ovid ·

          In reply to You have got to be kidding

          I wholeheartedly agree. When I worked for a company who set it’s e-mail to automatically read the next e-mail it drove me nuts. That’s asking for a virus, worm or trojan. As for the poster who originted this post I would like to ask, What company do you really work for or are you just a hacker? Who are you stalking? or What kind of trick are you trying to pull on unsuspecting employees who’ll find their company box filled with unsolicited e-mails?
          Hurrah to both “You(‘re)*** kidding” posters.

    • #2509285

      to answer the question

      by markspeevak ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      I wouldn’t begin to second guess the employee issue. Many times, technical steps are helpful imtermediate steps before a final solution.
      I would forward all the users emails to a 2nd mailbox (named “username”), move the smtp address to this new box, configure read only permissions on the 2nd maibox, hide the first mailbox from the address book, and configure this maibox in the user’s Outlook Profile.

    • #2494408

      Call me crazy…

      by firestorm69 ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      …but the easiest thing to do is archive ALL email (sent or received) at the server. That way you don’t have to worry about individual rights assignment, group policies and the like.

      This would also allow the end user to delete anything they want and only they can be held accountable and you can still retrieve any message from the archive if needed.

      Sounds simple enough to me.

      FireStorm69

    • #2511140

      if you have a exchange server

      by techsupport ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      you can always tell exchange mailbox store to keep your deleted items for a set number of days. then you will be able to recover deleted items within Outlook under the tools menu.

    • #2532742

      Alternative approach…simple solution…

      by beltwaytech ·

      In reply to Preventing a user from deleting emails in outlook

      You said he/she is deleting ALL e-mail. Some where in those deleted messages could be a required action. Failure…um refusal to perform–simple solution–TERMINATION. This is a management issue not a technical one.

      Here is the management approach–

      1. Send an e-mail requiring action by a specific deadline. Mark the message with the options to track delivery, read, and delete (if possible).

      2. Communicate the action only by e-mail.

      3. He misses the deadline. Take action. Ask why he did not respond.

      HOWEVER, not all email requires attention.

      Now I had a director who was less than average in the intelligence department. He would forward dozens of meaningless messages that contained some news story. I was running a software project with real deadlines. He would complain to my manager that I was not reading his he e-mail. My response was simple when he aired his protest publicly. What is your preference–me read the newspaper or take care of the care the paying customer?

      “Those stories are important to the service we deliver! The customer could benefit.” Theoretically he was right. In reality, he was wrong. So I did it his way for a bit. I read and responded to every message with a return receipt. Three of us charged his marketing account an average of one hour a day for a month. Weekend marketing hours stood out. For grins on my own time, I would forward one or two related stories for each one he sent me. Other managers joined the did-you-see-this-counter-attack. We took a targeted approach–related links, articles, white papers, studies, etc.

      He missed a critical message from a senior VP because his box was full. Ooops! He acknowledged the information was GREAT stuff but he couldn’t keep up with the junk that was filling up his box. The following week I risked it, I asked him if he could tag his news stories with FYI INFOSOURCE-that way I could tag and read at lunch time. I had a rule that would open the message. Eventually, he curbed his e-mail traffic (he did have some help from the crafty IT department–that reduced his quota).

      Moral: the employee should be penalized for ignoring e-mails that relate to his area of responsibility or all employees.

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