Instructions on how to Recall, recover mail sent in MS Outlook

September 2022 · 5 minute read

With just one click, you can send email messages to others. However, sometimes that agility makes you miserable when you accidentally send unsolicited email content, mistakenly send important messages to others that cannot be edited or retrieved. But you don't have to worry, MS Outlook will help you solve that problem at a glance.

Conditions for performing the email retrieval feature in Outlook

Emails sent with Microsoft Outlook may be deleted from the recipient's inbox or replaced by new e-mail, which must meet the following conditions:

  • E-mail reader of both sender and receiver must be connected to Microsoft Exchange server.
  • Email that you want to retrieve is sent to addresses that are in the same organization / business and must use the Outlook desktop application or Office 365.
  • The recipient has not opened the mail yet.

    • If these three requests are met, the email can be recalled without a problem.

    Recall emails on Outlook 2016, 2013 and 2010

    To recover emails sent using Outlook 2016, 2013 or 2010, you need to do the following:

    Step 1: Click the Sent Items folder located on the left side of the Outlook window.

    All sent messages will be automatically saved in Sent Items folder.

    Step 2: Select the email you want to revoke and double click to open in a new window

    When opened, Outlook provides a number of different functions, such as forwarding, replying, or moving emails right on the interface.

    Step 3: Click the Actions button and select Recall This Message from the drop down menu.

    If you do not see the Recall This Message option, you do not use an Exchange account or the recall function has been disabled by the administrator of the Exchange server.

    Step 4: Choose one of the two withdrawal options.

  • Delete unread copies of this message: the system recovers sent messages.
  • Delete unread copies and replace with a new message: the system recovers sent mail and replaces it with a new letter.

    • However, not all letters can be retrieved, MS Outlook is currently only able to retrieve letters that the recipient has not read. Therefore, you should set up the system to notify you in case the message has been revoked or not revoked, by checking Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient .

    Step 5: Confirm your selection by clicking OK.

    Step 6: To ensure that the revocation was successful, Outlook will always notify you by email of the revocation results. If you have activated the corresponding function, the recipient of the message will also be notified of the recall.

    Recall failure: Email about failed recall includes the following information: recipient, subject, time and failure recall.

    Successful recall : The email about the successful recall also includes the same information as when the recall failed, except that the email will have been successfully recovered.

    Has the email been successfully recalled?

    The fact that a sent email can be retrieved and replaced with a new message depends not only on the requirements listed above, but also on the recipient's Outlook settings.

    Case 1: The recipient's Outlook has "Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls" enabled.

    In this case, both the original message and the recall message will be saved in the recipient's inbox.Whether the recall will succeed or not depends on whether the message has been read or not:

  • If the recipient has not read the original email, it will be replaced with the revoked email. The recipient is still informed that you have recalled the original message.
  • If the email is marked as read then you cannot recall anymore, the message will remain in the recipient's inbox. However, the recipient will still be notified that you are trying to recall the message.

    • Case 2: The recipient's Outlook disables the "Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls" feature

    In this case, both the original message and the recall message will be saved in the recipient's inbox.Whether the recall will succeed or not depends on which email was previously opened:

  • If the recipient opens the previous recall message, the original message is deleted, which means that the recall was successful.
  • If the recipient opens the original email first, the revocation will not succeed.

    • Scenario 3: Recipients use rules that cause original emails to be moved to other folders Inbox.

    If the recipient sets up rules in Outlook so that similar emails are always grouped together, which means that the original and recovered emails will be stored in different folders, the retrieval will fail. How to fix some common Outlook errors and how to fix them

    Case 4: The recipient uses the rules (Rules) but both the original email and the retrieved email go to another folder.

    If the recipient sets up a rule in Outlook that both emails are stored in the same folder, it depends on which email is opened first.

  • If the recipient opens the previous recall message, the original message is deleted, which means that the recall was successful.
  • If the recipient opens the original email first, the revocation will not succeed.

    • So TipsMake.com has just taught you how to recall / recover emails sent on Outlook. It is not complicated but it depends on many other factors not only from the sender.

    Please try to see if there is a problem. Good luck!

    See more:

  • How to create folders in Outlook 2016 with rules
  • List of Outlook 2016 keyboard shortcuts when working with Mail
  • Summary of some common errors in Outlook and how to fix them

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