Webmail Users: Is your Trash ever deleted automatically?

If so, what criteria is used?

[MatthewHSE]

I don't use webmail much myself, but I do operate a small site that provides webmail services for free. Disk space is starting to become an issue, so I've contemplated introducing a policy of deleting trash automatically every X days. The problem is that I don't know what is standard for deleting webmail trash. How do the major players handle it? Do they automatically empty your trash on a regular basis? If so, does it wipe everything out of trash, or just messages that have been there a certain length of time?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Two days ago I noticed that an email I was expecting did not arrive. I did a search for it and finally realised that it had gone into a spam folder at my host. This spam folder was set to delete mail that was more than two months old. I must have set one of my email addresses (sod's law - the busiest!) to remove spam to this folder without realising that I had done so. All my other email addresses were OK.

Two of the emails in the folder were genuine enquiries and my problem was that I have probably been losing more of these since this was set. I don't know how long this has been going on but it could have been an expensive mistake.

Lesson? Check the settings on your server, they are very important.

[MatthewHSE]

I'm pretty sure I have the server set up correctly. I just need to know acceptable guidelines for automatically emptying the Trash folders of my webmail users (normal visitors to my site; not corporate webmail or anything like that). I've heard that once a month is considered okay for totally emptying all Trash folders in a webmail environment, regardless of how long a message has been in Trash. Is that normal for the larger webmail providers?

[celgins]

Well, the guidelines you choose will be unique to your system. But if you would like to follow some basic stats from other webmail providers:

Hotmail - Mail in the "Trash" folder after one day. Mail in the "Junk" or spam folder is removed every 5 days. I guess this gives users time to go in and make sure no legitimate emails are there.

Yahoo - Mail in the "Trash" folder is subject to deletion at any time! Meaning, Yahoo purges this folder whenever they see fit. Mail in the "Bulk" or spam folder can actually be controlled by the user. One can choose to keep spam mail for 1 week, 2 weeks, or 1 month. However, 1 month is the max and Yahoo will eventually delete it. Yahoo does note that spam mail does not count towards a users' email storage quota.

Outlook/Exchange - Outlook webmail is dependent upon the ISP or exchange mail server administrator. At my job, all folder storage is unlimited, but various options can be set.

Hope that helps!

[MatthewHSE]

Thanks - that's exactly the information I was looking for.

Next question: What does anyone think of those policies?