How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook? 6 Best Fixes That Will Work

Have you ever accidentally deleted important emails from Outlook and want to know how to recover deleted emails in Outlook older than 30 days? This guide will explain top six solutions that include both manual and automated options. Moreover, one might also learn actual reason for deletion of Outlook emails and how to recover deleted Outlook emails from deleted folder. So, let’s quickly begin with article.

 
However, this email communication plays vital role in both our casual and professional lives, from transferring important files to managing them on daily basis. Here, multiple Outlook users are facing problem when an email is accidentally deleted and later removed from deleted items folder. But good part is that some of them can be recovered via built in recovery features offered by Outlook, backups, or dedicated software.

So stick with this blog post as it will walk you through multiple methods to retrieve deleted emails from Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, and 2003. Also, it will cover different devices and situations to make it easy for both beginners and advanced users to follow instructions.

What are Major Causes of Email Deletion in Outlook?

In this following section, we will go through possible reasons for disappearing of emails in Outlook folder. Here are some of them listed below:

1. Accidental Deletion: This can affect emails and other items, such as contacts and calendar entries.
• A user might have deleted some crucial emails or other items from their Inbox by mistake, then unknowingly cleared Deleted Items.
• User permanently deletes emails with attachments from Inbox, Sent Items, Junk Emails, Drafts, etc. (A Shift + Del will remove your email messages permanently from Outlook.)
2. Clean-Up: This is very common. When your Outlook data file size is expanding enormously, the best thing to do is to clear your unwanted email messages. Deleting emails from Outlook Deleted Items is the best way to resolve oversized PST file issues.
3. Issues: System errors and synchronization issues between different devices may also result in loss of important emails.
4. Microsoft Outlook also provides an option to check ‘Empty Deleted Items when exiting Outlook’ to clear your Deleted Items section easily.

These are few cases where users are looking for solutions to recover permanently deleted emails Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007. Now, once users are aware of cause, then they can easily avoid these problems in future.

Manual Method 1 – Recover Deleted Emails from Outlook Deleted Items Folder

If we look from a wider view, we can see that the storage facility for deleted items is everywhere. From the Recycle Bin provided in MS Windows OS, all the email client applications provide a separate folder to store deleted items. Microsoft Outlook itself provides recovery options like Deleted Items. When you delete an email, it first goes to the “Deleted Items” section. This folder acts as a temporary storage for removed emails. You can undelete Outlook emails from here if they haven’t been permanently deleted yet. Follow the steps below based on your device.

Steps to Recover Deleted Emails Outlook Desktop & On Web

The process for Mac Outlook and Windows Outlook remains the same:

1. Launch Outlook from which emails are deleted and find the Deleted Items Folder (it is a system-generated folder).
2. Now check whether your deleted emails are in this folder or not. If yes, then move to the next step; otherwise, move to. Recoverable Items steps and perform deleted email recovery from the PST file using software.
3. Select all emails that you want to recover and right-click on them.
4. (For Outlook Desktop) After that click on the Move >> Other Folder option.



5. (For Outlook on the Web) After that click on the Restore button.

Steps to Retrieve Missing Emails on Mobile Outlook:

The process differs a little for mobile users:

1. Open Outlook app on your phone.
2. Tap on “three horizontal lines” and select the Deleted Items folder.
3. Next, locate the email you want to retrieve.
4. Finally, tap and hold the email, then select Move to Inbox or your desired folder.

Manual Method 2 – Retrieve Deleted Outlook Emails from Recoverable Items

If your email is not in the “Deleted Items” folder, it might still be in the “Recoverable Items” folder. This folder stores emails that have been removed from “Deleted Items.”

Where is it applicable?

This method works for accounts like Office 365, Exchange, or Outlook.com. It does not apply to POP or IMAP accounts unless your provider supports this particular recovery option.

Steps for Recoverable Items:

1. Launch Outlook on your PC or Macbook.
2. Select the Recoverable Items Folder, if it’s present directly on the Outlook ribbon bar.



3. Or, go to Deleted Items folder.
4. Now select the option Recover items deleted from this folder.



5. After that, select the emails that you want to recover and hit the Restore button.

Another Method? Check Outlook Archives

Outlook provides the option to archive emails and reduce clutter. Sometimes, deleted emails are mistakenly moved to the Archive folder. So, it’s a good option to search for the missing emails inside the archive folder if they’re present in your Outlook.

1. Open Outlook and go to the folder list.
2. Find the Archive folder. This folder will only be present if the auto-archive option is enabled in Outlook.
3. Next, browse for the missing emails inside this folder.
4. Finally, Move the deleted email back into Outlook Inbox or other folder of your choice.

If the email is not in Deleted Items, Recoverable Items, or Archive, the next step is to check whether you have a local Outlook backup (.pst file).

Recover Your Deleted Outlook Email from a PST Backup

If you regularly restore PST data or regularly take its backups, you can use it to restore the messages.

1. First, open Outlook.
2. Next, go to “File” >> “Open & Export” >> “Import/Export”.
3. Then, choose “Import from Another Program or File”.
4. Now, select “Outlook data file (.pst)”.
5. Lastly, browse to the backup file and import it.

Steps to Recover Permanently Deleted Emails From Outlook

Follow the instructions and easily recover deleted emails from Outlook even after 30 days. After completing the recovery process, the user can access recovered data on the respective platform.

1. Download the free version of the software from the above Download button. Install it on your Windows System. Run the application.
2. Load the required Outlook data file into the software by clicking on the Add File option in the top-left corner.

   Note: This Add File option provides two options: Select File option and Search File option.

   You can browse to the PST location if you know it or you only have one Outlook data file to load. If you have multiple Outlook data files to recover (deleted) emails in Outlook (from the deleted items folder), then use the Search Outlook Data File from Drive or All Drives option as per your need.

   

3. In the Add File Window, you have many other options such as; Remove Encryption, Scan Mode, etc. Choose the Advanced Mode option to recover permanently deleted emails from Outlook PST file and press the Add button.

   Note: The software allows you to remove SMIME or OpenPGP encryption type from Outlook data files and decrypting encrypted email messages in bulk, check this option.

   Advanced Mode Scanning can repair corrupted PST files as well.

   

4. The software will preview all the recover deleted emails in Outlook in the preview panel in Red color as shown in the screenshot.

   Note:

   The application can recover emails from PST files and it can also retrieve deleted contacts, calendars, tasks, notes, and journals from the loaded Outlook data file. These recovered items will also be displayed in red color in the preview panel.

   

5. Export recovered deleted emails from the Outlook file into a new healthy Outlook PST file. You can choose the Export Selected option in the top right corner if you need to export only the selected email messages. This option helps you to save only those recovered deleted emails as Outlook PST files effortlessly.
6. Clicking the Export button opens an Export File window, in which you can choose the file format in which you need to save the resultant data. Choose the PST file option.

   Note: The software provides other export file options like EML, MSG, PDF, and HTML, and it also provides direct export of recovered mail directly to an Office 365 account. The user can effortlessly save recover deleted emails in Outlook.

   

7. Provide the required destination location to store the resultant Outlook data file and hit the Export button.

After the completion of the export process, it provides a success message and then generates a report. You can verify the process using this data. Now you can import the resultant recovered Outlook data file into your Outlook account and see recovered emails in the Outlook account efficiently.

Advanced Method 2 – Admin Recovery Using Microsoft Purview (For Organizations)

For Microsoft 365 business and enterprise mailboxes, administrators may be able to recover deleted email content through Microsoft Purview:

1. First, sign in to the Microsoft Purview Portal.
2. Next, open eDiscovery.
3. Create a new case and define search criteria.
4. Locate the deleted email message.
5. Export the recovered emails, then import them into Outlook.

Suggestions for Outlook OST File

In case your Outlook OST file is damaged and you want to recover deleted emails from the OST file including other data, then you should use the SysTools OST Recovery Tool. It is one of the best solutions to handle complete data, it uses advanced scan modes to identify the corruption level and deleted data. and allows you to decrypt OST file data and convert into readable format.

If both your Outlook data files (OST and PST) are damaged, then go for the Pro version of this solution for advanced recovery capabilities. Install the demo version for trial.

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Table: Summary of Methods to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook (Soft / Permanently)

Also Read: After recovering your deleted emails in Outlook, users can further try SysTools Outlook Attachment Extractor tool. It’s primary job is to extract multiple attachments from PST files.

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Concluding Thoughts

In this blog, we have discussed how to recover deleted emails in Outlook and other items efficiently without any data loss. Start from the simpler methods to undelete Outlook emails or recover permanently deleted emails Outlook. If those don’t work, then move on to advanced methods like professional software.

After all, it is not easy to restore permanently deleted emails in Outlook. These emails are no longer available in the Deleted Items or Trash folder. The above-described recovery tool effortlessly restores hard or Shift-deleted email messages along with attachments from Outlook data files. It helps to recover deleted items from Outlook as well.