How to Recover Deleted Emails in iCloud Mail

When you delete an email in iCloud Mail, it goes to Trash and stays there for 30 days before it’s erased for good. Within that time you can move it back.

Recover from Trash on iCloud.com

1. Go to icloud.com/mail and sign in with your Apple Account.
2. Open the Trash mailbox and select the emails you want back. On a computer, click an email — Command-click (Mac) or Control-click (Windows) to pick several. On a phone or tablet, tap Edit, then tap the circle next to each email.
3. Select the Move button, choose Inbox (or another folder), then select Move.

On a computer you can also drag emails onto a folder in the Mailboxes list. The email reappears on all your devices that have Mail turned on in iCloud settings.

On iPhone or iPad

In the Mail app, open your iCloud account’s Trash mailbox, open the email, tap the More Actions button and move it to another mailbox. To see deleted email from all your accounts at once, use the All Trash mailbox.

Check Junk

A missing email may have been filed as junk. On iCloud.com, open Junk, select the message, choose Move Message › Inbox › Move. Junk is also deleted automatically after 30 days.

Why email can disappear sooner than 30 days

• Another mail app. If you read iCloud Mail in another app, that app’s settings may delete mail sooner. Apple’s iPhone guide adds that iCloud doesn’t keep deleted email longer than 30 days, whatever a device is set to.
• “Move deleted messages to” is off. On iCloud.com, Settings › Mailbox Behavior has a Move deleted messages to option. If it’s unticked, deleted email is erased immediately instead of going to Trash. Tick it if you want a safety net.
• Deleting syncs everywhere. An email deleted on iCloud.com is deleted on every device with Mail turned on in iCloud settings — and the reverse.

What can’t be recovered

Once you choose Empty Trash, or 30 days pass, Apple says the emails are permanently deleted and can’t be recovered. Apple’s Data Recovery on iCloud.com is for files; Apple doesn’t list Mail among what it restores.

Tip: if your iCloud storage is full, you stop receiving new email — see iCloud storage full. Using another service? Gmail · Outlook · Yahoo.