How to: Delete subfolders of the same name in Outlook 2007

quickTipIt appears that there is a mechanism in OUTLOOK 2007 that does not allow you to delete a folder that would create a subfolder in the DELETED ITEMS folder with ID number more than 19.
That means that, if for some reason you have a number of folders with the same name (say that, for example, you have a folder called SUBFOLDER under each folder called FOLDER and you had 25 folders called FOLDER, id. had 25 folders named SUBFOLDER) you would not be able to delete all of those subfolders in one go.

If you did try to erase all of them, the following would happen:
1. right click on the first SUBFOLDER, select DELETE, click OK when it prompts you that it will be deleted. A subfolder will be created under the DELETED ITEMS folder in Outlook.
2. Do the same for the second SUBFOLDER folder. Under DELETED ITEMS there will now be a new subfolder called SUBFOLDER_2 (to avoid clashing with the previous one).
3. Do the same for the next 17 SUBFOLDER folders.
4. When you try to delete the folder which would create the folder SUBFOLDER_20 under the DELETED ITEMS, you will notice that nothing happens. You will not be prompted for an error, you will not see the folder being deleted.

Outlook can only create 19 numbered folders that would otherwise clash with an existing folder. Empty the DELETED ITEMS folder and you will notice that you will once again be able to delete your SUBFOLDER folders. You can only have 20 same name folders in the Outlook DELETED ITEMS folder, named from NAME to NAME_19.

MGR: the Intelogist

About MGR: the Intelogist

SharePoint Server developer, turned Sitefinity developer, turned Angular developer, turned SharePoint Online consultant, turned Unily consultant, turned O365 consultant... Never a dull moment!

2 thoughts on “How to: Delete subfolders of the same name in Outlook 2007

  1. 5d1411dfc022f5732cc3902ad845ae8d/

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    • MGR

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