Quickly delete old Newsletters and RSS feed items
I’m one of many that doesn’t delete any of the emails that I send or receive. I really like that history but I decided that I really should not hoard all the old Newsletters and RSS feed items that I receive as well.
I’m somewhat organized and I’ve stored most of my Newsletters and RSS Feeds in various folders.
Is there any way to quickly get rid of all the items which are from last year and older?
There are actually 2 relatively easy methods to quickly get rid of your old Newsletters and RSS feed items.
Method 1 uses a message rule and Method 2 uses a Search Folder.
Method 1: Using a disabled message rule
The quickest method is to create a disabled message rule which moves or deletes certain items based on their received date.
Once the rule has been created, it must be triggered manually since rules are only executed automatically when the message is being received. Therefor, you can leave the rule disabled. To reuse the rule in the future, you’d only have to adjust the date span condition.
| Rule type | Apply rule on messages I receive |
|---|---|
| Condition | Received in a specific date span
|
| Action: | Permanently delete it Accept the warning or set the action to "Delete it" instead and empty your Deleted Items folder after confirming that you like the results. |
Disable the created rule since it won’t do anything for new emails anyway.
To run the rule, press the Run Rules Now… button in the Rules and Alerts dialog. You can then select the rule to run and also the folder (and subfolders) which you like it to process.
Make sure you select the correct folder before executing!
Method 2: Using a Search Folder
Another way to go would be to use a Search Folder. The benefit of this method is that you’ll see which emails and RSS items you will be deleting before you actually delete them.
Another benefit is that you are more flexible in selecting which folders to search in. You can also add some flexibility to the date span so it will find “new” old items automatically as time goes by.
- Create a new Search Folder:
- Keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+P
- Right click on Search Folders in the Navigation Pane and choose: New Search Folder…
- Classic Ribbon
Folder-> New Search Folder
- In the dialog that pops-up, scroll to the bottom and choose: Create a custom Search Folder
- Press the “Choose…” button.
- Name the Search Folder.
For instance: Old News Items - Press the “Criteria…” button.
- Select the “Advanced” tab
- Type the following in the fields below:
- Field: Received
- Condition: on or before
- Value: 12/31/2020
You can also use a value like “a week ago” to create a more dynamic Search Folder. For more info see:
Quickly set dates with formulas and natural text.
- Press the “Add to List” button.
- Press OK.
- Press the “Browse…” button.
- Verify that no folders are selected (by default your top-level folder is selected).
- Select the “RSS Feeds” folder and any other folders in which you keep your Newsletters.
- Enable the option: Search subfolders
- Press OK and OK again to close all open dialogs.
Now when you select the “Old News Items” Search Folder, a list will be generated of items older than the set date. You can select them all via CTRL+A and delete them all at once via SHIFT+DELETE (to skip the Deleted Items folder).
Extra tip: Prevent it from piling up again
To prevent it from piling up again, there are also 2 methods available to automatically get rid of old items after a certain amount of time.
These methods are described in Automatically clean up old Newsletters and RSS items.
