How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook

Outlook.com gives you two chances to get a deleted email back. First it sits in Deleted Items for 30 days. After it leaves Deleted Items, you can still recover it for another 30 days. Junk Email is different: it’s deleted after just 10 days.

1. Restore from Deleted Items

1. In Outlook.com or Outlook on the web, select Deleted Items in the left pane.
2. Select the message you want, then select Restore. To restore everything, select the circle beside Deleted Items, then Restore.

Use Ctrl+click to pick several messages, or Shift+click for a range. If the email came from a folder you’ve since deleted, use Move to and choose a folder that still exists.

2. Recover email that’s no longer in Deleted Items

1. Select Deleted Items in the left pane.
2. At the top of the message list, select Recover items deleted from this folder.
3. Select the items and choose Restore.

Recovered items go back to their original folders if those still exist; otherwise email goes to your inbox. This view — the Recoverable Items folder — doesn’t open in a mobile browser, so use a computer.

3. Check Junk Email

Select Junk Email, select the message and choose Not junk. Move quickly: junk is kept for only 10 days.

In classic Outlook for Windows

Click Deleted Items in the folder pane, select the message, then on the Home tab click Move and choose a folder (or Other Folder). You can also drag it to another folder. If it isn’t there, Microsoft points you to its guide on recovering deleted items from the server, linked below.

Still can’t find it?

It may never have been deleted — just filed by a rule, swept or archived. Search all folders with the Outlook Search Builder, and check your Outlook rules and the Archive folder (see archiving in Outlook).

What can’t be recovered

• Email that has passed both 30-day windows, or junk older than 10 days.
• Anything you emptied from Recover items deleted from this folder — that’s permanent.
• Messages deleted from a child’s account. Microsoft makes these unrecoverable on purpose, so parents can be sure deleted messages stay deleted.

Tip: Outlook can empty Deleted Items every time you sign out. If yours does, turn off Empty my deleted items folder in the message-handling settings — and don’t use Deleted Items or Junk as storage. Archive instead.