Hi everyone, I use Outlook for Mac V. 15.19.1 and am trying to free some hard drive space up on my Macbook Air by deleting large email attachments. My Q is this: when I delete an attachment from an email, I am safe to assume it has also been deleted from my hard drive or is it possible the attachment (or email or both) are still residing somewhere on my internal hard drive? It seems that when I delete an attachment, Outlook wants to delete the entire email (which I am fine with) but I also know that sometimes you might think you have successfully deleted a document, for example, only to find it is still being stored somewhere on your internal hard drive. Please can you advise whether my emails/attachments are being permanently deleted and how I might know this for certain? Thanks very much!
![How to permanently delete email files How to permanently delete email files](http://www.officetutes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/1523394516_maxresdefault.jpg)
I have been successfully deleting attachments but am not free'ing up as much space as I had expected and the Apple forums suggested that someone from MS may be able to help me with the following: Using Omnisweeper, I found the folder containing several large files; it is my Outlook folder in Users-my name-Library-Group Containers. There is a folder called message attachments, and when I search for one of the files in Finder, it shows me the file but I am unable to open it; it brings up an empty email with the attachment attached but no application actually opens the attachment. Apple forum suggested that someone here might know how to open it or at least be able to find out what's inside (see attached screenshots). I'd like to be able to see the contents of these files as it seems easier to delete from Omnisweeper (or at least from Finder) now that I know the location of these attachments.
![Permanently Permanently](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125383874/864372138.png)
They are all in one place. Is it possible to know what's in them-and why can't I open them easily? I thought I'd try and email myself the attachment but still, it doesn't actually open. What on earth is in it? These message attachments are taking up 30GB+ of space on my hard drive:(. If anybody knows how to view the actual attachments that Omnisweeper shows are taking up so much space on my hard drive-please could you let me know. There is a folder called Message Attachments and this is where the messages are located but I can't open them (from Omnisweeper) and therefore don't know which emails they relate to.
Sep 17, 2018 - To permanently delete a message (without having the message go to the Deleted Items folder at all) in Outlook: Hold down the Shift key while pressing Del. Click Yes under This message will be permanently deleted. Set the Application pop-up to Mail, enter Cut for the menu title, and enter your desired keystrokes (Shift-Control-X, perhaps) in the Keyboard Shortcut box, then click Add.