How to stop Outlook from saving Sent emails in the Sent Items folder

Many Windows users rely on Microsoft Outlook for their daily online communication. The service, in addition to enabling robust communication, lets users configure its settings as per their convenience. Every email you send is saved in the Sent Items folder. If you would like to prevent Outlook from saving copies of messages in the Sent Items folder, here’s how you can do it.

How to stop Outlook from saving Sent emails

Many people find it convenient to have a past record of emails saved under the ‘Sent Items’ folder in Outlook. In case there is need to access any old email, one can simply go to this folder to check on the emails that they had sent, and take the necessary action.

Also, one can verify if the email was delivered to the intended recipient. So, Outlook can help you as not just a tool to manage your email messages, calendar, contacts, and tasks but also your time-management. However, the downside of this feature is that it starts saving all the sent emails in Outlook indiscriminately.

Stop Outlook from saving copies of Sent emails via its settings

You can prevent Outlook from saving copies of emails in the Sent Items folder via its Settings, Group Policy or Registry Editor. Here’s how. If you want to change this setting, follow the instructions given below.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook
2. Access Word Options dialog box
3. Switch to Mail tab
4. Disable ‘Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder’ option

After you send an email using Microsoft Outlook, a copy of the email message is saved to the Sent Items folder.

1] Open Microsoft Outlook

Launch Microsoft Outlook app by typing Outlook in Search bar or simply clicking its icon on the Windows 10 Taskbar.

2] Access Word Options dialog box

Choose the ‘File’ tab and select ‘Options’ from the list of options displayed.

3] Switch to Mail tab

When the Options dialog box opens, switch to the ‘Mail’ tab.

4] Disable ‘Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder’ option

In the right pane of the Options dialog box, go to ‘Save Messages’ section.

There, look for ‘Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder’ option.

Now, simply un-check the box marked against this option to disable Outlook from saving copies of messages in the Sent Items folder.

Prevent Outlook from saving Sent Items using GPEDIT

Open Group Policy Editor and navigate to the following setting:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Outlook 2016 > Outlook Options > Preferences > E-mail Options

Double-click on Save copies of messages in Save Items folder.

Select the Enabled box and then select the Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder.

You can configure some other settings here, as well.

Prevent Outlook from saving Sent Items using REGEDIT

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following keys:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences

For Outlook 2021/19/16 and Outlook for Office 365 the version number will be 16.0.

Create a DWORD Value Name and name it SaveSent. Give it a value as follows:

• 0 = Sent emails will not be saved in the Sent Items folder.
• 1 = Sent emails will be saved in the Sent Items folder.

Trust you find the post useful.