This topic

Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

Allison1 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:56:51 GMT

Hello, very occasionally I need to go back and find a recent email that I've sent to the bin/trash thinking I'd finished with it. I'll find it's been permanently deleted after a short time, say 2 weeks. Can I extend the time in which emails are kept in the bin/trash before they are permanently deleted? Is there a setting I can adjust?

Thanks, AH

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

gg30340 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 14:13:34 GMT

No.

Don't use the Trash file if you may want the email later. Set up a pending file and use that.

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

Allison1 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 17:33:53 GMT

Not helpful nor what I asked

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

licquorice — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 17:45:44 GMT

Your question was answered accurately, what more where you expecting?

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

Allison1 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 17:48:27 GMT

Annoying advice about what I can’t go back and change.

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

licquorice — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 17:58:03 GMT

It's not annoying advice, it's very good advice for the future.

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

gg30340 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 19:38:14 GMT

@Allison1 wrote:

Not helpful nor what I asked

The first line in my reply was the answer to your question!

The second line was a suggestion about what you should do as you apparently don't understand that the Trash folder is where you put emails that you no longer want just in the same way as you but your household rubbish in the refuse bin so that the refuse collectors take it away on set days or do you expect to change the days that the refuse collector call in case you might have a change of mind!

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

chrisjp — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 20:36:24 GMT

Hmm...By definition, when you consign an email to the trash you don't anticipate that you'll change your mind about it 2 weeks later - so you wouldn't put it in a Pending folder even if you've set one up.

2 weeks is a rather short time before emails are permanently deleted and it would indeed by useful if the user could extend this. The only downside would be a larger Trash folder but that would surely be a problem only for someone who was trashing a large number of emails daily. My company email system keeps items in the Trash folder for several months and it has, on just a few occasions, been useful to me.

Sure, wanting to do the same with physical trash isn't practicable, but email is more flexible - or it's supposed to be.

I get that BT email doesn't allow extension to the 2 weeks before deletion timeframe, but I'm with the OP is seeing if it could be made possible.

One option might be to use an email client which provides flexibility in setting up the Trash folder, instead of BT webmail

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

Allison1 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 20:49:02 GMT

A simple “no” would have sufficed, minus the condescending unsolicited “advice “ about how to use the trash. Everybody knows! Just don’t respond if you can’t resist adding the smug lecture. 🙄

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

gg30340 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 23:01:33 GMT

@Allison1 wrote:

A simple “no” would have sufficed, minus the condescending unsolicited “advice “ about how to use the trash. Everybody knows! Just don’t respond if you can’t resist adding the smug lecture. 🙄

Don't ask a question if you don't want the correct answer because it was apparent that you didn't know what "Everybody knows" about how to use the trash folder other wise you would not have needed to ask the question in the first place.

Re: Can I extend the time that my emails are kept in trash before before being deleted

HHGTTG — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 09:30:41 GMT

There's nowt so queer as folk. Ones that would put mail into the trash bin as a repository for going back to at a later date hoping that they'd be able to retrieve old emails that, in hindsight, they'd like to peruse again.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Happy New Year to all the helpers here.