How to Restore Hard-Deleted Mailboxes in Microsoft 365 Beyond the Retention Period?
Accidentally deleting crucial emails from your Office 365 account can be a nightmare. Especially when those emails are permanently deleted, and cannot be recovered easily. Whether it’s due to human error, data corruption, or even cyber-attacks, losing important data can severely disrupt your workflow and cause unnecessary stress. But don’t worry, — this write-up provides a comprehensive guide on how to restore a deleted mailbox in Microsoft 365, even after the retention period expires. So, without any further discussion, let’s get started!
Here is a real-life scenario where a user accidentally deleted his mailbox data. Let’s have a quick sneak peek into it.
Real-Life Scenario: An Administrator’s Challenge
“Hey, I am the administrator of the company. I asked one of my Office 365 users to remove some emails which are not in use. But by mistake, he had deleted multiple mailbox data from Office 365, and that mailbox contained more than 30000 emails. At least 80 percent of the emails are very important for work. Now, I am not able to restore them. I need help to recover the soft-deleted mailbox in Office 365. Although I have the PST files manual Import and Export takes days to recover those emails. If anyone has any solution, then let me know.”
Table of Content
What Happens When A Mail Gets Deleted From Office 365?
When a user deletes their mailbox data from Office 365 then, deleted mailbox data goes to the Deleted Items Folder. Now, how long does Office 365 keep emails deleted emails? The data resides in the Deleted Items Folder until the retention period expires which is 30 days. After hitting the retention period, the deleted data moves to the recoverable items folder, by default it stays here for 14 days. After that, it gets permanently deleted from the O365 account and then the deleted item recovery becomes almost impossible for users. But if you have the respective PST files for those accounts. then you can easily restore them using these ways.
How to Restore A Deleted User Mailbox in Microsoft Office 365?
There are a few ways that an admin can use to perform this task, let’s discuss them one by one in the coming section.
Method 1. Recover from the Deleted Items Folder
If the mailbox or emails have been deleted recently (within 30 days), users can try to recover the deleted mailbox or email directly from the Deleted Items folder.
Check out the below steps to recover emails from Deleted Items:
Step 1. Open Outlook (Web/ Desktop).
Step 2. Click on Deleted Items in the left sidebar.
Step 3. Look for the deleted items you want to restore.
Step 4. Select the emails or folder, then click on Restore.
Using these steps you can easily restore or recover the deleted mailbox data within 30 days.
Method 2. Recover from the Recoverable Items Folder
Even after the Deleted Items folder is flushed, you can still recover the deleted emails from the Recoverable Items folder for another 14 days (if retention settings are default).
Here are the Steps to Recover from the Recoverable Items Folder:
Step 1. Open Outlook.
Step 2. Click on Folder > Recover Deleted Items.
Step 3. Select the items you want to recover.
Step 4. Click on Recover to restore the deleted emails.
This method provides an additional safety net beyond the Deleted Items folder.
If the mailbox was deleted by deleting the corresponding user account, then you can restore the mailbox by restoring the user account in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Method 3. Office 365 Admin Center: Recover a Deleted Mailbox
As an admin, you can restore mailboxes from the Admin Center even after a user account is deleted, as long as the mailbox was soft-deleted and within the 30-day retention period.
Here are the Steps for Office 365 Admins to Restore a Deleted Mailbox:
Step 1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
Step 2. Go to Users > Deleted Users.
Step 3. Select the deleted user whose mailbox you want to recover.
Step 4. Click on Restore.
Step 5. Set up the user account again (if needed).
This method helps recover entire user mailboxes that have been mistakenly deleted but are within the retention window.
Method 4. PowerShell Command to Restore An Office 365 User Account
You can recover soft-deleted mailboxes using the PowerShell cmdlet below. The cmdlet example below restores the mailbox for Allie Bellew.
Step 1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.
Step 2. Run the below Undo-SoftDeletedMailbox cmdlet.
Undo-SoftDeletedMailbox [email protected] -WindowsLiveID [email protected] -Password
(ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'Pa$$word1' -AsPlainText -Force)
Note: You can not restore or recover a user mailbox if that account is held for 30 days using this command or EAC.
How to Recover Deleted Office 365 Account After 30 Days?
If you want to get back the deleted mail data from Office 365 after the 30 days grace period, then you have to use a professional solution such as SysTools Office 365 Backup & Restore Software. This software is engineered to retrieve the deleted items to the Office 365 account from their respective .pst files.
Note:– The recovery process only works when you create a backup of your mailbox data at a regular time interval.
The tool is a complete package for backing up and restoring the Office 365 mailbox data items without any data loss. With the help of this software, the administrator is free to recover multiple PST files into different mailboxes at once.
Must Read: How to Save Office 365 Emails to Desktop?
Why Using A Tool Is A Good Way to Restore A Deleted Mailbox in Office 365?
The following lets you know how an automated solution is far better than a complex PowerShell method when comes to the recovery of permanently deleted Office 365 mails.
- Point-in Time-Restore Option – This software restores backed-up data from PST files to the user mailbox of the same or different Office 365 account. It includes data such as emails, calendars, contacts, etc.
- Complete Office 365 Mailbox Backup – This software allows users to save single as well as multiple mailboxes of your Office 365 to the local system. Also when you want to create the offline backup of Office 365 data, this software allows you to choose any folder instead of an entire mailbox.
- Folder Hierarchy Feature – This software is capable of maintaining the folder hierarchy of the data after the data is moved from OWA to local storage. As well as it provides the feature of a Date Range which specifies a specific set of dates in the “From” and “To” fields. After that, the tool will back up and restore data that lies between the mentioned date range only.
- Functionality For Cross-User Restore – This functionality allows the admin to restore the data of one Office 365 member to another user account. This data can be from the deleted items folder and the rest of the folders. So, if any co-worker leaves the workplace and their account PST file resides in the system, then the admin can able to retrieve its data.
- Date Filter – It allows you to backup and restore data selectively using its smart date filter. You can choose the required date range and the software will backup or restore only those data.
Must Read to Know: Does Microsoft Backup Office 365?
After understanding its main features, let’s see the working process of the software:
Software Steps to Undo Soft Deleted Mailbox
Step 1. Download and install the tool on your Windows system. After that, click on Restore.
Step 2. Select Outlook as the source and Office 365 as the destination platform.
Step 3. Choose the required Office 365 mailbox items such as email, contact, calendar, etc from the workload selection.
Step 4. Now define the location, where you have stored the Outlook PST files on your computer.
Step 5. Now validate the required permissions.
Step 6. Input Office 365 credentials and Validate account permissions.
Step 7. Use any of these three options to fetch the Office 365 users’ accounts to restore them.
Note:- If you are an Admin and you want to restore multiple users’ accounts then, at this step you can download the CSV file containing the standard format. Provide the email ids of the users and the respective path for the PST files and upload them.
Step 8. Now, select the desired user account, validate the required permissions, and lastly click on Restore.
Final Say
In this article, we have discussed more than four ways to restore a deleted mailbox in Office 365. If you have to restore only a few accounts then you can easily configure them in Outlook and you can use the Export and Import feature to restore them or use can use the PowerShell commands. But If you have multiple accounts to restore, and you have the PST files of your respective user mailboxes. Then you can easily restore them to Office 365 by using the above-mentioned software.
FAQs
These are some of the common queries that users ask while restoring deleted mailboxes in Office 365:
Q1. Can I recover emails deleted more than 30 days ago in Office 365?
Yes, it is possible to recover emails deleted more than 30 days ago if you have previously backed up the mailbox data using the above tools. Without a backup, recovery becomes highly challenging after the retention period expires.
Q2. How can I prevent accidental deletions of emails in Office 365?
Understanding the importance of email data, Microsoft offers several ways, using which you can easily prevent the accidental deletion of crucial emails such as
- By implementing retention policies you can keep emails for a specific period.
- Scheduling regular employee training and educating them about careful email management.
- By using the litigation hold or In-Place hold features you can easily preserve emails.
- By regularly backing up your mailbox data using reliable backup solutions, you can ensure email data safety.
Q3. What is the difference between soft-deleted and hard-deleted mailboxes?
The soft-deleted mailboxes are moved to the Deleted Items folder in Outlook and can be recovered within the retention period or by default within 30 days. On the other hand, hard-deleted mailboxes are permanently removed from the system and are not recoverable unless a backup exists.
Q4. Why using PowerShell commands are not recommended for mailbox recovery?
PowerShell commands can recover soft-deleted mailboxes within the retention period, it has several limitations such as:
- PowerShell scripts are complex and require technical expertise to execute.
- It Does not work for mailboxes deleted for more than 30 days or the retention period expired.
- Using this you can not restore data from corrupted or damaged mailboxes.
- It also lacks advanced features such as selective restoration and maintaining folder hierarchy.
Q5. Is it safe to use third-party tools for Office 365 data recovery?
It depends on which software you choose, if you opt for the above-mentioned software then the answer is Yes. Because it is a safe and effective software solution that is designed to handle data securely and efficiently throughout the backup process. Moreover, it offers features that may not be available through native Microsoft methods.