How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook? [Quick Guide]

Accidentally deleting a crucial email without its backup can turn out to be a costly mistake. But many Office 365 users often find themselves in such a situation. They unknowingly delete an important email and find no means of recovering it later on. But what if you know how to recover deleted emails in Outlook? You surely won’t panic in such a case. In this article, you’ll find different recovery methods for when you’ve deleted an Outlook email.

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How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook?

There are certain methods you can use to recover deleted emails in Outlook, whether or not you have their backup. You can do it via the deleted items folder and the Recoverable Items folder.

Retrieve deleted emails via the Deleted items folder

In order to recover your deleted emails quickly, you must meet the following two conditions:

It has been less than a month since you deleted the email. Remember that the files in the Deleted items folder get eliminated after 30 days automatically.
You have not deleted any email from the Deleted items folder.

Now follow the process given below to find the deleted emails.

On the web, launch MS Outlook.
Navigate to the ‘Deleted items’ folder.
You’ll notice the emails you have removed. Now you can retrieve specific items or all of them. If you want to restore a particular item, head over to that email and put the radio button closer.
Then tap ‘Restore.’ You will see the email appearing in that folder from where you deleted it.
If you want to restore all the deleted emails, tap ‘Restore’ without choosing a specific email.

The process to recover deleted emails on the desktop

Launch your Outlook and navigate to the ‘Deleted items’ folder.
Right-tap on the email you want to retrieve and select ‘Move’ followed by ‘Other Folder.’
In the following window, choose the folder to move your email and hit ‘OK.’ Unlike the web version mentioned previously, you cannot restore emails with a single click on the desktop. You must go through the items individually.

Retrieve permanently deleted emails in Outlook via the Recoverable items folder

You don’t get any backup options in Microsoft. However, it provides you with two options for recovering deleted emails. People who mistakenly cleared up the deleted items folder, or deleted emails more than a month ago should use the Recoverable Items folder. Follow the steps below to recover permanently deleted emails.

Navigate to ‘Deleted Items’.
You’ll see a ‘Recover item deleted from this folder’ link. Tap it.
Tick near the Recoverable Items to select everything.
For recovering specific items, you should tap on them. Alternatively, you can also click the radio-button present near them.
Then, click ‘Restore.’

Now, every one of your files is restored. You can choose to restore them to the initial folder or the folder of Deleted Items according to your Outlook version. Note that you have a period of thirty days till all emails get erased from this folder.

How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook through Auto-Archive and eDiscovery Search

You can shift or move older emails to the archive through auto-archiving and access them later. If you are a desktop Office 365 user, you can recover deleted emails via the archive folder. Note that auto-archiving is also set by default for all the corporate users of MS Outlook. If you are unaware of it, you cannot know that all your older emails are shifted to the archive folder. As a result, you might think that they are deleted. Here’s how to retrieve deleted emails from Outlook via auto-archiving.

Open Outlook and press ‘Archive.’
Now select if you desire to move back the emails in the folder or select a specific one.
After selecting the emails, click ‘Move to’ followed by ‘Inbox.’

Recover deleted emails via the eDiscovery tool

The eDiscovery tool allows you to look for information for legal cases. Follow these points if you are an administrator in order to recover Outlook emails. Not that only IT administrators can utilize this tool.

Launch Office 365 dashboard and go to ‘Settings.’ Now choose ‘Admin.’
On the MS 365 admin center, tap ‘Show All.’
Scroll down and click ‘Security & Compliance.’
Scroll to ‘Exchange’ and tap it.
Now select ‘Permissions.’
Out of the three parameters choose ‘Admin roles.’
From the drop-down, choose ‘Discovery Management.’
Then tap ‘Edit.’
You’ll find the new window opening. Scroll to the section of ‘Members.’ Next, click on ‘Plus.’
Another window will get opened. Select your name and hit ‘Add.’ Then tap ‘OK.’
Now you must re-enter the system. For it, sign out and sign in again.
Navigate to the ‘Exchange admin center’ followed by ‘Compliance Management’ and then ‘In-place eDiscovery & hold.’
After this, tap the ‘+’ symbol. You are making a new search by doing so.
Input a name for this search. It’s also possible to write a description. Then select ‘Next.’
To locate lost files, define the email address. Firstly, select ‘Specify mailboxes’ to search, followed by ‘Add a mailbox.’ Then hit ‘Next.’
To narrow the search, select ‘Filter based on criteria.’ You may know the keywords in the email. So you can filter accordingly. You can also filter as per the time frame you’ve received or given a specific email.
Next, hit ‘Select messages types to search.’ This filter will enable you to differentiate the file type you want to find.
Tap ‘Next’ after setting the search parameter.
Go to ‘In-Place Hold’ settings and press ‘Finish.’

Further Process-

Now go back to ‘In-Place eDiscovery & Hold.’ There would be a search list you have made. Choose it and hit ‘Export to a PST file.’
The ‘eDiscovery PST Export Tool’ window will come up. Tap ‘Browse’ and select where to restore the file. Then hit ‘Start.’
Provide your admin credentials. All the files will be downloaded in .pst format.
To restore them, navigate to your desktop Outlook and look for the ‘File’ tab.
Then select ‘Open & Export’ followed by ‘Open Outlook Data File.’
Locate your .pst file and click ‘OK.’
The new folder will appear on your screen. Locate the file you want and right-tap it to ‘Move’ it.
Select the folder for this file to be shifted to. You’ll locate it there.

Final Words

Hopefully, you must have no doubts regarding how to recover deleted emails in Outlook. Although the methods may seem lengthy, they’ll help you find crucial emails that you may have deleted. If you cannot carry out this process yourself, feel free to get in touch with Outlook customer support services. The support professionals will help you recover your deleted emails quickly.

How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook