It’s hidden behind the service provider’s interface. When it comes to online services, we really don’t know how trash is handled. The real question is, what happens when deleted emails are actually deleted from the trash? Emptying trash online: we just don’t know This gives you a month to change your mind and recover anything you didn’t mean to delete.ĭesktop email programs often have a setting controlling what happens to trash, so you can decide whether it’s left alone until you explicitly empty it, or emptied automatically when you exit the program. Most online services automatically delete email from trash after some amount of time - usually 30 days. What happens next depends on the program or service. Instead, the message is moved to a special folder, typically called “trash” or “deleted items”. In most email programs and web interfaces, deleting a message doesn’t actually delete it. When deleted emails aren’t really deleted And, of course, the person at the other end of the message - sender or recipient - could also have a copy. Depending on the situation, backups (either your own or those of the service you use) might be a way to recover. In a desktop mail program, there are several ways a permanently deleted email might still be recoverable. With an online service, there’s no way to know what “permanent” means. Both can use recycle or trash bins, and both permanently delete when the bin is emptied. Deleting email is similar to deleting a file on disk.
Explore how to make the most of your existing IT and discover technology to improve your efficiency by joining our community. Superfast IT offer IT support to businesses in Birmingham and the West Midlands, helping small business to use technology better and back-up their data. It's definitely worth a shot before giving up! We can help our clients to recover deleted emails because of the method we use to back-up their data. If these methods haven't worked, then your IT support provider should be able to help. You also have the option to permanently delete the items in this folder. You can then quickly select what emails you want to recover to your inbox. If you click ‘recover deleted items’ you’ll then see this screen (with your emails) It is important to check both folders regularly as they can get wiped after a certain amount of time. Unlike the Outlook desktop version, the Outlook web application will give you a prompt when you go to delete an email from your deleted items folder Īs is the case with the desktop version, Outlook web always tracks recently deleted emails from the deleted items folder. As you can see in the image below, there are other options too. To move the email back into your inbox right click on the email you want to move and click restore to send it back to your inbox. On the sidebar, you will see ‘deleted items’ įrom here you can select to move any items that have been deleted away from your deleted items folder. It’s a similar method to the Outlook desktop application. You can also recover deleted emails if you’re using the web-based version of Outlook. It seems to be quicker and more user friendly than the desktop version for Office 365. Our tip would be to search for the email via a web browser. Although, it is worth checking for the email via the search function on Outlook just in case it ended up somewhere else. Unfortunately, if you can’t see your email after following these steps, it stands a good chance it has been permanently deleted. Once on your deleted items folder on Outlook, you will see a prompt at the top of the folder allowing you to see recently deleted emails įrom here you can then choose to restore the emails into your deleted items folder or get rid of them permanently What if it’s not in your deleted items folder?Įven if you’ve deleted the email from your deleted items folder, you may be able to recover it. You can also use this technique to restore sent items, calendar appointments and tasks. From here, you will be able to choose where you want to restore the email to, i.e. To do this, right click on the email, then select the ‘move’ option. Upon being deleted from your inbox, the message will go into your ‘deleted items’ folder.Īny emails you can see in this folder can be restored to your inbox. If you accidentally delete an email from your Outlook inbox on your desktop, luckily it’s relatively easy to restore them back into your inbox. If you’re using the Outlook desktop application, you’ll be glad to know you can recover your deleted emails in a couple of different ways. Take a look at our guide on how to recover deleted emails in Outlook both in the desktop and website versions. Luckily there are a few methods to help you recover those ‘deleted’ emails. We’ve all been there, and it feels like the world is ending. Have you accidentally deleted an important email?