Exchange Email synchronization across devices

Question

I have three devices connected to a Microsoft Exchange account. If I delete a message completely (from the Inbox and then the Deleted Items folder) is it then deleted from the server as well as the other two devices?

Futhermore, will the other devices also move it into the Deleted Items folder before deleting it?

Answer 1

As long as all three devices have the email account setup as an Exchange account (as opposed to a POP3 or IMAP account) a deleted message should be removed from all devices.

There are a few caveats to this:

• The Exchange server administrator may have the server set to keep deleted messages for a set period of time, even after you delete it from your Deleted Items folder.

• Some devices and mail applications may not notify the server that a message has been permanently deleted by the user depending on how the application was configured. Consult the settings page in your mail application for that specific account go see if there are any options mentioning this.

As for your last question, it depends on two things:

1) How much time there was between when you deleted the message from your inbox and when you deleted it from your Deleted Items folder.

2) How often your devices are set up to synchronize themselves with the Exchange server.

If you delete the message on one device from both folders within a few seconds, the server will note that permanent deletion was the final action applied to that message and inform the other devices to permanently delete the message from whatever folder it's in the next time they check in with the server.