Prevent users from deleting Outlook folders

Question

We're having a problem with a user losing folders in Outlook. The problem persisted through a mail provider migration and a computer change, so we're pretty sure it's a user problem.

Since we can't blame the user because he's the owner of the company, is there a way that we can silently prevent him from accidently moving/deleting his folders? If not silently, is there any way at all?

Infrastructure details:

Outlook 2016;

Mail type: IMAP;

We don't have access to the mail server configurations.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Preventing deletion of folders would affect the normal use of Outlook; a user needs to be permitted to manage own folders. On a shared folder the folder could be protected from deletion server side by limiting permissions, but that isn't so easy when the user is the owner of the mailbox.

we can't blame the user because he's the owner of the company

I would implement some kind of auditing instead of prevention. Logging of deletions would give proof of what's really happening. Blaming without evidence might be rude, but if you can show this is a user error, it should be possible to discuss about it - unless the boss is totally egoistic and ignorant.

We don't have access to the mail server configurations.

This is a dead end. You can't implement anything without access to configuration.