XCLN: Cannot Permanently Delete Deferred Delivery Mails from the Outbox

When you use Outlook 2000, if the Outbox contains e-mail items that are marked for deferred delivery, you may not be able to delete those e-mail items permanently. If you attempt to delete the items permanently, you may receive the following error message:

To work around this issue, delete the e-mail item as you would delete any other e-mail item. Select the e-mail item, and then click Delete on the File menu. After the e-mail item is moved to the Deleted Items folder, you can delete the e-mail item from the Deleted Items folder, which permanently deletes the e-mail item.

You can delete any item in any Outlook folder by selecting the item, and then pressing the DELETE key to move the item to the Deleted Items folder (this procedure works in all folders except the Deleted Items folder). The move to the Deleted Items folder is a precautionary measure that enables the user to recover the item from the Deleted Items folder later, if necessary.

However, if you want to bypass this step and permanently delete the item, you can select the item, and then press SHIFT+DELETE simultaneously. This deletes the item permanently, and the item cannot be recovered. In Microsoft Outlook 97 and Microsoft Outlook 98, when items are marked for deferred delivery, those items are moved to the Sent Items folder. In Outlook 2000, when items are marked for deferred delivery, those items are moved to the Outbox. Outlook 97 and Outlook 98 do not exhibit the issue that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article. Only Outlook 2000 is affected.

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