Restore deleted items in Outlook
Accidents happen! When that sudden realization hits days later that you need an email message that’s long gone, the Recover Deleted Items command might save your day. You can recover some deleted items, like messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, and notes, even after the Deleted Items folder is emptied or you’ve “hard deleted” an item by pressing Shift+Delete.
This feature doesn’t work with POP3 or IMAP accounts.
If you’re using Office 365 or another Exchange-based client, you can also restore deleted items using Outlook Web App. For more information, see How do I recovery messages or items in Outlook Web App?
- 1.Click Folder > Recover Deleted Items.
If you don’t see Recover Deleted Items, you’re probably not using an Exchange account or you don’t have a folder selected in that account.
- Click the message you want to recover, and then click Recover Selected Items .
Tip To select multiple items, press Ctrl as you click each item, and then click Recover Selected Items .
Recovered items are restored to the folder you’re working in.
About the Deleted Items folder
When you delete a message, it’s first moved to the Deleted Items folder. You can either let messages stay there until you remove them, or you can set Outlook Web App to automatically empty your Deleted Items folder each time you sign out. Your administrator may have set up a policy to remove items from your Deleted Items folder after they’ve been there a set number of days. Your admin may have also specified how long items that have been deleted from your Deleted Items folder remain available for recovery. For example, there may be a policy that removes anything that’s been in your Deleted Items folder for 30 days, and another policy that lets you retrieve items that have been deleted from the folder for up to another 15 days.
If you are using Office 365, items deleted from your Deleted Items folder remain recoverable for 14 days by default.