Tech Tip : Automatically Clear Out Repetitive Emails
If newsletters, automated alerts or regular notifications gradually fill your Outlook inbox, Sweep can automatically clear out older messages from particular senders so you do not have to keep tidying them manually.
Why Is This Useful?
Sweep is particularly useful for emails where you normally only need the latest message, such as regular status updates, delivery notifications, automated reports or promotional emails.
Instead of creating a more complicated Outlook rule, you can select one message from the sender and tell Outlook what should happen to their messages automatically. For example, you can keep only their latest email or automatically remove messages once they are more than 10 days old.
How To Use Sweep In New Outlook
In new Outlook:
- Select an email from the sender you want to manage.
- Click Sweep on the ribbon.
- Choose what you want Outlook to do with messages from that sender.
- Select the folder where applicable, such as Deleted Items.
- Click OK to apply the setting.
Depending on the option selected, Sweep can deal with messages already in your inbox as well as automatically handling future emails from that sender.
How To Use Sweep In Outlook On The Web
The process is very similar in Outlook on the web:
- Select a message from the relevant sender.
- Click Sweep on the toolbar.
- Choose the action you want Outlook to take.
- Confirm your choice.
Options include automatically removing incoming messages from that sender, keeping only the latest email, or deleting messages older than 10 days.
A Simple Way To Keep Your Inbox Under Control
Sweep can be especially useful for repetitive emails that are useful when they arrive but quickly become irrelevant afterwards. Once configured, Outlook keeps applying the instruction automatically, helping prevent one regular sender from gradually filling your inbox with messages you no longer need.
One thing to remember is that Sweep runs once per day, rather than immediately when each message arrives, so it works slightly differently from a normal Outlook inbox rule.
