How to recover deleted items from outlook
When you accidentally delete an item from your Outlook mailbox, you can often recover it. The first place to look is the Deleted Items or Trash folder. Search for the item you want, right-click it, and then select Move > Other Folder. If you can’t find the item there, the next steps depend on which type of email account you have in Outlook.
If your folder list looks like this, and you see the Deleted Items folder, follow the steps in the next section to recover deleted email messages, appointments, events, contacts, and tasks that have been removed from the Deleted Items folder.
If your folder list looks like this, and you see the Trash folder, you can restore items from the Trash folder to your other folders. However, you can’t recover items that have been deleted from the Trash folder.
Need to recover a deleted folder in Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016, or Outlook for Microsoft 365? You can recover a deleted folder (together with all its messages) if it’s still in your Deleted Items folder.
To recover the folder, locate it in your Deleted Items folder and move it back to its proper location in the folder list.
You can’t recover a folder that’s been permanently deleted. However, you can use the steps in this topic to recover messages from the folder that you deleted.
Recover an item that’s no longer in your Deleted Items folder
If you can’t find an item in the Deleted Items folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable Items folder. This is a hidden folder, and it’s the place where items are moved when you do one of the following things:
Delete an item from the Deleted Items folder.
Empty the Deleted Items folder.
Permanently delete an item from the Inbox or from another folder by selecting it and pressing Shift+Delete.
Watch this video or follow the steps in this section to recover items from the Recoverable Items folder.
In Outlook, go to your email folder list, and then select Deleted Items.
Important: If you don’t see the Deleted Items folder, but instead see the Trash folder, your account doesn’t support recovering an item that’s no longer in your Deleted Items folder.
On the Home menu, select Recover Deleted Items From Server.
Important: If there is no Recover Deleted Items From Server command on the menu, your account doesn’t support recovering an item that’s no longer in your Deleted Items folder.
Select the items that you want to recover, select Restore Selected Items, and then select OK.
Where do recovered items go? When you recover items from the Recoverable Items folder, they are moved to the Deleted Items folder. After you recover an item, you can find it in your Deleted Items folder and then you can move it to another folder.
To help you find a specific item in the Recover Deleted Items window, select the Subject, Deleted On, or From column header to sort items by that column.
Note that the Deleted On date specifies when items were permanently deleted (by using Shift+Delete) or when they were removed from the Deleted Items folder.
All items in the Recoverable Items folder—including contacts, calendar items, and tasks—are represented by the same envelope icon.
If you’re looking for a contact, sort by the Subject column, and then look for the name of the person. You can also sort by the From column to look for blank entries. This is because contacts don’t have a From field.
If you’re looking for a calendar appointment or a task, sort by the From column, and then look for your name.
To recover multiple items, press CTRL as you select each item, then select Restore Selected Items. You can also recover multiple adjacent items by selecting the first item, holding down the Shift key, and then selecting the last item that you want to recover.
Your administrator may have specified how long items in the Recoverable Items folder are available for recovery. For example, there may be a policy that deletes anything that’s been in your Deleted Items folder for 30 days, and another policy that lets you recover items in the Recoverable Items folder for up to another 14 days.
After the recovery period expires, your administrator may still be able to recover an item. If you can’t find the item in the Recoverable Items folder, ask your administrator whether it can be recovered. If neither of you can find the item, the item was probably permanently deleted from your mailbox and can’t be recovered.
When you delete multiple Outlook items, you can see them listed in the Deleted items folder. If you must recover the items, you can return them only to the following folders.
When you accidentally delete an email message from your Outlook.com email, you can recover those items if they’re still in your Deleted Items or Junk Email folder, and in some cases you can even recover items after the Deleted Items folder is emptied.
Email is automatically deleted from your Deleted Items folder after 30 days.
Items removed from your Deleted Items folder are recoverable for 30 days.
Email is automatically deleted from the Junk Email folder after 10 days.
If you don’t see the deleted messages you want to recover, they have probably been permanently removed from the Deleted Items folder or Junk Email folder. We don’t recommend that you use either of these folders to store your messages. If you want to store your messages in folders other than your Inbox, see Working with message folders.
It’s not possible to recover messages deleted from children’s accounts. This way, parents can be confident that when they delete messages from their children’s accounts, they stay deleted.
You must use your Outlook.com account to keep it active. This means you must sign in to your Outlook.com inbox at least once in a one-year period, otherwise we will close your Outlook.com inbox for you and all email will be deleted. You must sign in at least once in a five-year period to keep your Microsoft account and associated Services active. If you don’t sign in during this time, we’ll assume your Microsoft account is inactive and will close it for you. Read more.
When you delete an anything (email message, email folder, contact, calendar item, or task), it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder.
In the left pane, select the Deleted Items folder or the Junk Email folder.
Note: Contents of deleted folders are only visible once you expand the Deleted Items folder:
Do one of the following:
Deleted Items folder: Select the message you want to recover. To recover all messages, select the circle by Deleted Items and then select Restore.
You can only select all if all messages are visible. This is to prevent accidental actions on messages you cannot see.
Ctrl+ Click selects individual messages, Shift+Click selects everything between two clicks.
Messages that were in a deleted folder can only be restored by selecting Move to and choosing a folder that’s not been deleted.
Junk Email folder: Select the message you want to recover, and select Not junk.
If you can’t find an item in the Deleted Items folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable Items folder.
Note: You can’t access the Recoverable Items folder if you’re using a mobile browser. To access the Recoverable Items folder, please use a PC or Mac.
In the left pane, select the Deleted Items folder.
At the top of the message list, select Recover items deleted from this folder.
Select the items you want to recover, and select Restore.
You can only select all if all messages are visible. This is to prevent accidental actions on messages you cannot see.
Ctrl+Click selects individual messages, Shift+Click selects everything between two clicks.
Where do recovered items go? The items you select to recover will be restored to their original folders when possible. If an original folder no longer exists, items will be restored as follows:
Messages go to your inbox.
Calendar items go to your calendar.
Contacts go to your contacts folder.
Tasks go to your tasks folder.
Outlook.com might empty your Deleted Items folder each time you sign out. To change this:
At the top of the page, select Settings > View all Outlook settings.
Under When signing out, uncheck the box next to Empty my deleted items folder.
Still need help?
Note: You will need to sign in first to get support. If you can’t sign in, go to Account support.
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When you accidentally delete an item from your mailbox, you can often recover it. The first place to look for a deleted item, such as an email message, calendar appointment, contact, or task is the Deleted Items folder. If it’s not there, you might still be able to recover it by using Recover deleted items, depending on settings that are controlled by your IT administrator.
This article is for Outlook Web App, which is used by organizations that manage email servers running Exchange Server 2013 or 2010. If you’re using Microsoft 365 or Exchange Server 2016, your email program is Outlook on the web. For help with Outlook on the web, see Get help with Outlook on the web.
When you delete an email message, contact, calendar item, or task, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder.
In a web browser, sign in to Outlook Web App using the URL provided by the person who manages email for your organization. Enter your user name and password, and then select Sign in.
In your email folder list, select Deleted Items.
To restore an email message, do one of the following:
To restore a message to your inbox, right-click the message, then select Move > Inbox.
To restore a message to a different folder, right-click the message, then select Move > More. Choose a folder location and then select Move.
To restore other types of items:
To restore a contact, right-click it, then select Move to Contacts.
To restore a calendar item, right-click it, then select Move to Calendar.
To restore a task, right-click it, then select Move to Tasks.
Tips for recovering items in your Deleted Items folder
If you delete a folder, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder and appears as a subfolder. To recover it (and all the items it contains), right-click the deleted folder, select Move, and then select a folder to move it to.
Your admin might have set up a policy to delete items from your Deleted Items folder after a certain number of days. Just like when you deleted an item, items deleted by a policy are moved to the Recoverable Items folder. So if you can’t find something in your Deleted Items folder, look for it in the Recoverable Items folder.
If you can’t find an item in the Deleted Items folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable Items folder. This is a hidden folder that items are moved to when:
They’re deleted from the Deleted Items folder.
The Deleted Items folder is emptied, either by you or by a policy set by your IT administrator.
You delete an item by selecting it and pressing Shift+Delete.
To view and recover items that have been moved to the Recoverable Items folder:
In a web browser, sign in to Outlook Web App using the URL provided by the person who manages email for your organization. Enter your user name and password, and then select Sign in.
In your email folder list, right-click Deleted Items, then select Recover deleted items.
If necessary, use the search box to find the item you want to recover.
When you find the item, select it, and then select Recover.
Recovered items are moved to the default location for each item type.
Messages go to your Inbox.
Calendar items go to your Calendar.
Contacts go to your Contacts folder.
Tasks go to your Tasks folder.
Tips for recovering items in your Recoverable Items folder
The deleted date for an item in the Recoverable Items folder is when the item was moved to the Deleted Items folder. It’s not the date the item was moved to the Recoverable Items folder.
Items in the Recoverable Items folder don’t have icons, so they all look very similar.
If you’re looking for a contact, look for an item that has the name of the person, but no subject line.
If you’re looking for a calendar appointment, look for an item that doesn’t have a person’s name or a subject line.
If you’re looking for a contact, calendar appointment, or a task look for the text of that item.
To recover multiple items, hover over each item and select the checkbox next to it, select Recover.
You can also recover multiple adjacent items by selecting the checkbox for first item, holding down the Shift key, and then selecting the checkbox for the last item. When all items are selected, select Recover.
You can purge items from the Recover deleted items list. Just select the item and then select Purge. If you purge an item, you won’t be able to use Recover deleted items to get it back. Purging a message won’t remove it from any backups that were made before you purged it.
Your organization might have specified how long items in the Recoverable Items folder are available for recovery. For example, there might be a policy that deletes anything that’s been in your Deleted Items folder for 30 days and another policy that lets you recover items in the Recoverable Items folder for up to another 14 days.
@agiledoc
Nov 26, 2018, 10:24 am EST | 3 min read
We’ve all experienced the stomach drop that happens when you accidentally delete something. That’s why we’re big fans of backing things up, whether you’re on a PC, a Mac, Android, or iPhone. You can back up your Outlook .pst file like any other file—and you should, even if that means moving it from its default location—but that won’t help you recover an email that you just deleted accidentally.
Luckily, there’s a good chance you can recover your mistakenly deleted item if you’re using Microsoft Exchange Server as your mail server. (If you’re not, and you’re using a web-based mail address like Gmail or Yahoo! mail, your best option is to log into the web interface for your email and search there.)
The Difference Between a Soft and Hard Delete
When you “soft delete” an email, by selecting it and either using “Delete” on your keyboard or clicking the “Delete” option in Outlook, the message is sent to the Deleted Items folder. It will generally stay in the Deleted Items folder until you empty the folder (although your company administrators may have changed this to empty your Deleted Items folder automatically on a regular basis). Emptying the Deleted Items folder is known as a “hard delete” because it deletes the message from Outlook on your computer entirely. You can also “hard delete” a message from any folder in Outlook by using SHIFT+Delete on your keyboard, which deletes it without sending it to the Deleted Items folder.
If you’ve soft-deleted a message by accident, go to the Deleted Items folder, find the message, and move it back to the folder from which you deleted it. If you’ve hard-deleted a message, you’ll need to use the “Recover Deleted Items” tool.
How to Recover Hard-Deleted Messages
When an email is “hard-deleted,” it is moved to a hidden “Recoverable Items” folder in Exchange. By default, the retention period for these deleted emails is 14 days. This means that for 14 days after you’ve “hard deleted” something from Outlook, it will sit in the “Recoverable Items” folder before being permanently deleted (and being completely unrecoverable). So unless your email administrator has changed the default, you’ve got 14 days to use Outlook’s “Recover Deleted Items” tool to get your accidentally deleted email back.
You can access this tool in one of three different places:
Select the Deleted Items and look at the top of the folder pane for the “Recover items recently removed from this folder” option.
Head to Home > Recover Deleted Items from Server.
Head to Folder > Recover Deleted Items.
All of these options launch the same Recover Deleted Items tool, which displays a list of items in the Recoverable Items folder.
To recover a deleted item, select it, make sure “Restore Selected Items” is switched on, and then click “OK.”
The item will be moved back to the Deleted Item folder, where you can then move it back to whichever folder you like.
You can recover multiple items from the Recover Deleted Items tool by holding down the Control key while selecting the emails you want to recover. If there’s a whole block of emails, you want to recover, select the first mail, then hold down the Shift key and click the mail at the end of the block to select them all. You’ve also got a “Select All” button if you want to recover all of the emails. If you’ve selected a lot of emails, it can take a little while for them to recover, as they need to be moved from the Recovered Items folder back to your Deleted Items folder.
You can also purge emails from here as well. Select items you want to delete permanently, switch “Purge Selected Items” on, and then click “OK.”
A warning message will be displayed, which you need to take note of, because if you click “OK” the items you’ve selected will be deleted, with no way to recover them.
This is a serious warning—purging an item deletes it from Exchange, and it’s gone forever. There’s usually no reason to purge your email, so if you’re in any doubt, don’t use the Purge option.
If you’ve deleted something accidentally, and you can’t find it using the Recover Deleted Items tool, do nothing else and call your tech support team immediately. They might have tools that can get your email back, but be warned: they might not. So don’t forget to back up regularly!
I have both Office 365 and Outlook 2016. I meant to delete just one event of a recurring event in my calendar but I accidentally deleted the entire series of event. This was deleted in O365. I tried to follow a few document online to recover either through O365 or Outlook 2016 but still can’t event find the Calendar item under my account on the left panel of the outlook.
I also tried using the Recover from Server instruction. The list that showed up for recovery are just up to yesterday’s date. Nothing I deleted today shows up at all.
Is there anyway to recover my recurring calendar events back?
If you cannot find the calendar items in the first method as the link, it means the calendar event has been deleted again in the Deleted Items, the calendar event will go to recoverable items folder, so, when you restore the items from recoverable items, they will go to Deleted Items first. Thus, you need to search the repeated calendar event you mentioned in Deleted Items and then according the first method to recover the items to inbox.
As your mentioned, may I know if “the list that showed up for recovery are just up to yesterday’s date” is Deleted Items? If yes, please try to recover the recurring calendar event as above method.
Please contact us if you have any update.
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(This topic is intended for Exchange administrators.)
Administrators can search for and recover deleted email messages in a user’s mailbox. This includes items that are permanently deleted (purged) by a person (by using the Recover Deleted Items feature in Outlook or Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App)), or items deleted by an automated process, such as the retention policy assigned to user mailboxes. In these situations, the purged items can’t be recovered by a user. But administrators can recover purged messages if the deleted item retention period for the item hasn’t expired.
In addition to using this procedure to search for and recover deleted items (which are moved to the Recoverable Items\Purges folder if either single item recovery or litigation hold is enabled), you can also use this procedure to search for items residing in other folders in the mailbox and to delete items from the source mailbox (also known as search and destroy).
What you need to know before you begin?
Estimated time to complete: 15-30 minutes.
Procedures in this topic require specific permissions. See each procedure for its permissions information.
Single item recovery must be enabled for a mailbox before the item you want to recover is deleted. In Exchange Online, single item recovery is enabled by default when a new mailbox is created. In Exchange Server, single item recovery is disabled when a mailbox is created. For more information, see Enable or disable single item recovery for a mailbox.
To search for and recover items, you must have the following information:
Source mailbox: This is the mailbox being searched.
Target mailbox: This is the discovery mailbox in which messages will be recovered. Exchange Setup creates a default discovery mailbox. In Exchange Online, a discovery mailbox is also created by default. If required, you can create additional discovery mailboxes. For details, see Create a discovery mailbox.
Search criteria: Criteria include sender or recipient, or keywords (words or phrases) in the message.
This topic focuses on using PowerShell to recover deleted items in a user’s mailbox. You can also use the GUI-based In-Place eDiscovery tool to find and export deleted items to a PST file. The user will use this PST file to restore the deleted messages to their mailbox. For detailed instructions, see Recover deleted items in a user’s mailbox – Admin Help.
Use new EAC for recovering deleted messages
In the new EAC, navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes.
Select the mailbox for which you want to recover deleted messages, and click on the display name.
Under More actions, click Recover deleted items.
Enter values for each or either of the filter criteria from the drop-down lists.
Click Apply filter.
Using Powershell to manage deleted items
Step 1: Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell
Step 2: Search for and recover missing items
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the “In-Place eDiscovery” entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online topic.
You can use In-Place eDiscovery in the Exchange admin center (EAC) to search for missing items. However, when using the EAC, you can’t restrict the search to the Recoverable Items folder. Messages matching your search parameters will be returned even if they’re not deleted. After they’re recovered to the specified discovery mailbox, you may need to review the search results and remove unnecessary messages before recovering the remaining messages to the user’s mailbox or exporting them to a .pst file. For details about how to use the EAC to perform an In-Place eDiscovery search, see Create an In-Place eDiscovery search.
Use the Exchange Online PowerShell to search for messages
This example returns all of the available recoverable deleted messages with the specified subject in the mailbox [email protected] for the specified date/time range.
Use the Get-RecoverableItems cmdlet to create a search query to find an Outlook item. Once you have a list of results you can use properties like last modified date, item type, etc. to narrow the amount of items restored or to restore a specific item.
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Get-RecoverableItems.
How do you know this worked?
To verify that you have successfully searched the messages you want to recover, log on to the discovery mailbox you selected as the target mailbox and review the search results.
Step 3: Restore recovered items
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the “In-Place eDiscovery” entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online topic.
You can’t use the EAC to restore recovered items.
After messages have been recovered to a discovery mailbox, you can restore them to the user’s mailbox by using the Restore-RecoverableItems cmdlet.
Use Exchange Online PowerShell to restore messages
After using the Get-RecoverableItems cmdlet to verify the existence of the item, this example restores the specified deleted items in the specified mailboxes:
Mailboxes: [email protected], [email protected]
Item type: Email message
Message subject: COGS FY17 Review
Location: Recoverable Items\Deletions
Date range: 3/15/2019 to 3/25/2019
Number of mailboxes processed simultaneously: 2
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Restore-RecoverableItems.
How do you know this worked?
To verify that you have successfully recovered messages to the user’s mailbox, have the user review messages in the target folder you specified in the above command.
More information
The ability to recover deleted items is enabled by single item recovery, which lets an administrator recover a message that’s been purged by a user or by retention policy as long as the deleted item retention period hasn’t expired for that item. To learn more about single item recovery, see Recoverable Items folder in Exchange Online.
An Exchange Online mailbox is configured to retain deleted items for 14 days, by default. You can change this setting to a maximum of 30 days. For more information, see Change how long permanently deleted items are kept for an Exchange Online mailbox.
As previously explained, you can also use the In-Place eDiscovery tool to find and export deleted items to a PST file. The user will use this PST file to restore the deleted messages to their mailbox. For detailed instructions, see Recover deleted items in a user’s mailbox – Admin Help.
Users can recover a deleted item if it hasn’t been purged and if the deleted item retention period for that item hasn’t expired. If users need to recover deleted items from the Recoverable Items folder, point them to the following topics:
In addition to using this procedure to search for and recover deleted items, you can also use a similar procedure to search for items in user mailboxes and then delete those items from the source mailbox. For more information, see Search for and delete email messages.
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, which is mainly used as an email application by a lot of people. While working on MS Outlook, it might occurs that some important items like Emails, contacts, tasks, etc. have been deleted by accident from the mailbox. If you are running into such a situation, is there any way can help you out?
Now, just go through this post to learn the methods in which deleted emails, appointments, events, contacts, and tasks can be recovered and restored in MS Outlook 2013.
Part 1: Can the Deleted Contents Be Recovered in MS Outlook 2013?
When you delete an item from your Outlook 2013 mailbox, then it will be moved to the deleted items folder first. You can recover deleted contents if they are still in your Deleted Items folder. As for permanently deleted items, they will be held on the server for 14 days, during this limited period, you are allowed to restore them in Outlook, but if you hard-deleted a folder, then you will only see items from that folder in the Recover Deleted Items.
Part 2: Top 3 Ways to Restore the Deleted Email, Appointments, Events, Contacts, and Tasks in MS Outlook 2013
The following 3 methods focus on recovering deleted Emails, tasks, messages and other contents in Outlook 2013 for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
Way 1: Recover Recently Deleted Items in MS Outlook 2013 from Deleted Items folder
If the items were deleted not long ago, you have great to get them back. Just use the steps below to recover deleted Emails, tasks or calendar items in Outlook 2013
Launch the Outlook first, then go to your email folder list and select Deleted Items on the left side.
Once located the message, just right-click on it and select Move > Other Folder.
To transfer the message back to your inbox, you just need to click Inbox, and then hit OK to confirm.
As to recover deleted calendar/ contact/ task in outlook 2013, all you need to do is right-click it, and hit Move > Other Folder, and then choose the folder correspondingly.
This is the easiest and fast way to find what you deleted back, but the worst scenario is that your deleted item are not in the Deleted Items folder after the folder has been cleared, what would you do? No worries, just read on to learn how to recover permanently deleted items in Outlook 2013.
Way 2: Retrieve Deleted Outlook 2013 Items from Recoverable Items folder
If an item you deleted was not shown in the Deleted Items folder, then you have to check the Recoverable Items folder where your item might be moved to. After that, follow the exact steps below:
First of all, head to the email folder list, and then click Deleted Items.
Select the Home from the subject line, move the mouse to the Recover Deleted Items From Server and click on it.
From the deleted items list, select the item you want to recover and check Restore Selected Items, then click on Ok
One thing I want to emphasize is that these two methods can only be used to recover those items stored on Microsoft server, for those you stored on your computer, you have to use a third party program to help you get them back.
Way 3: Recover Permanently Deleted Items in Outlook 2013 with Any Data Recovery
“Recover deleted items” option is grayed out? To recover deleted items when Outlook 2013 greyed out, here we highly Windows Data Recovery, an excellent data recovery program helping you recover emails, PST files permanently removed from the Deleted Items folder, files originally deleted using Shift + Delete keys or items cannot be recovered from server. Below is how it works:
To begin with, have Any Data Recovery downloaded and installed to your PC, then launch it.
Step 1: Select the Email you want to recover from the main interface. Then click on Next to proceed.
Step 2: Next you need to choose a location and hit the Scan button to start files scanning.
Step 3: You can then preview the recoverable Outlook 2013 items, after that, just check the files and click on Recover. Then choose a location to save the recovered files properly.
Part 3: How to Recover Deleted Items in Outlook Web App 2013
The first thing you need to do after accidentally deleting emails, calendars and other files from the Outlook 2013 Web App is to check whether the Deleted Items folder is there, If the deleted item is still in the Deleted Items folder, then follow the steps below:
Sign into the Outlook Web App and look for the folder marked Deleted Items. When the target file is found, simply right-click on it and then select Move>Inbox.
Part 4: How to Retrieve Deleted Items in Outlook.com 2013
For web-based version user, you can recover the mistakenly deleted email from your inbox with the exact steps below:
Login into Outlook 2013 Web Access, then go to the left pane of the Outlook.com window, click the Deleted Folder. At the bottom of the window, click recover deleted messages.
This is all about how to recover deleted sent items in Outlook 2013 including emails, message, calendars, appointments, etc. in Outlook 2013. If you have any other better solutions, just leave comments below and we will update this article to include some of tips we received.
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When you accidentally delete an email message in Outlook on the web you can recover the message if it’s still in your Deleted Items folder. In some cases, you can even recover items after the Deleted Items folder is emptied.
You can also recover a deleted folder (with all of its messages) if it’s still in your Deleted Items folder. Unfortunately, you can’t recover a folder that’s been permanently deleted. But you can use the steps in this topic to recover messages that were in a folder when it was permanently deleted.
Note: Sign in to Outlook on the web using your Microsoft 365 work or school account.
Note: If the instructions don’t match what you see, you might be using an older version of Outlook on the web. Try the Instructions for classic Outlook on the web.
When you delete an email message, a contact, a calendar item, or a task, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder. If you don’t see a message in the Deleted Items folder, check the Junk Email folder. Contents of deleted folders are only visible once you expand the Deleted Items folder.
In the left pane, select the Deleted Items folder or the Junk Email folder.
Do one of the following:
Deleted Items folder: Select the message you want to recover, and select Restore.
You can’t restore messages that have been deleted from your Deleted Items folder.
Messages that were in a deleted folder can only be restored by selecting Move to and choosing a folder that’s not been deleted.
Junk Email folder: Select the message you want to recover, and select Not junk.
If you can’t find an item in the Deleted Items folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable Items folder.
In the left pane, select the Deleted Items folder.
At the top of the message list, select Recover items deleted from this folder.
Select the items you want to recover, and select Restore.
Where do recovered items go? The items you select to recover will be restored to their original folders when possible. If an original folder no longer exists, items will be restored as follows:
Messages go to your inbox.
Calendar items go to your calendar.
Contacts go to your contacts folder.
Tasks go to your tasks folder.
Outlook on the web may empty your Deleted Items folder each time you sign out. To change this:
At the top of the page, select Settings > View all Outlook settings.
Select Message handling.
Under When signing out, uncheck the box next to Empty my deleted items folder.
Instructions for classic Outlook on the web
When you delete an email message, a contact, a calendar item, or a task, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder in your mailbox. If you’re trying to find a message that was deleted, the Deleted Items folder is the first place to look. If the message is there, here’s how to recover it:
In your email folder list, select Deleted Items and do one of the following:
To restore a message to its original folder, right-click the item and then select Recover.
To restore a message to a different folder, right-click the item, and select Move > Move to a different folder. Next, specify a folder location, and then select Move.
Tip: If you delete a folder, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder and appears as a subfolder. To recover it (and all the items it contains), right-click the deleted folder, click Move, and then select a folder to move it to.
If you can’t find an item in the Deleted Items folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable Items folder.
In the left pane of the Outlook on the web window, select the Deleted Items folder.
At the bottom of the window, select Recover deleted items.
Select the item you want to recover, and then select Recover from either the toolbar
or from the Reading pane.
In Recover items, select OK.
Where do recovered items go? The items you select to recover will be restored to their original folders when possible. If an original folder no longer exists, items will be restored as follows:
Messages go to your Inbox.
Calendar items go to your Calendar.
Contacts go to your Contacts folder.
Tasks go to your Tasks folder.
Note: You also can delete items that are shown in the Recover deleted items dialog box. Select the item, and then select Delete. If you delete an item, you can’t use Recover deleted items to get it back.
When you delete a message, it’s first moved to the Deleted Items folder. You can let messages stay there until you remove them or you can set Outlook on the web to automatically empty your Deleted Items folder each time you sign out.
To empty the Deleted Items folder when you sign out:
Select Settings > Mail > Options, which opens the Options panel on the left.
Under Mail, select Message options.
Select the Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out check box, and then select Save.
Related topics
Still need help?
The information in this article applies only to Outlook on the web. If you’re not using Outlook on the web, choose from the following topics for help:
Note: If you’re not sure which version of Outlook you’re using, see: What version of Outlook do I have?
Need to recover deleted email?
You can often recover deleted contacts just like deleted email from your Outlook mailbox.
Important: You can’t recover a contacts subfolder folder that’s been permanently deleted. You can recover a deleted subfolder folder (with all of its contacts) if it’s still in your Deleted Items folder.
How to recover deleted contacts in Outlook
Recover a contact that’s still in your Deleted Items folder
When you delete a contact, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder in your mailbox just like a deleted email message. The Deleted Items folder is the first place to look if you’re trying to find a deleted contact. If the contact is there, here’s how to recover it:
In Outlook, go to your email folder list, and then click Deleted Items.
Use the Search Deleted Items box (or press CTRL + E) to find the item you want to recover. Or you can sort by the Icon column to group all the contacts in your Deleted Items folder.
When you find the contact, right-click it, and then click Move > Other Folder.
To move the contact back to your list of contacts, click Contacts, and then click OK.
Tip: You can also move deleted contacts to a subfolder in your Contacts folder.
Tips for recovering contacts in your Deleted Items folder
If you delete a subfolder from your Contacts folder, it’s moved to the Deleted Items folder and appears as a subfolder. To recover a subfolder (and all the contacts it contains), just select it in the folder list under Deleted Items, right-click it, click Move Folder, and then select Contacts to move the subfolder back to your Contacts folder.
To recover a deleted contact in Outlook.com, see this topic.
Your admin may have set up a policy to delete items from your Deleted Items folder after a certain number of days. Just like when you deleted an item from the Deleted Items folder, items deleted by a policy are moved to the Recoverable Items folder. So if you can’t find a contact in your Deleted Items folder, look for it in the Recoverable Items folder. The next section shows you how.
Recover a contact that’s no longer in your Deleted Items folder
If you can’t find a contact in the Deleted Items folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable Items folder. This is a hidden folder, and it’s the place where contacts are moved when you do one of the following things:
Delete a contact from the Deleted Items folder.
Empty the Deleted Items folder.
Permanently delete a contact by selecting it and pressing Shift+Delete.
Here’s how to recover contacts from the Recoverable Items folder:
In Outlook, go to your email folder list, and then click Deleted Items.
Make sure Home is selected, and then click Recover Deleted Items From Server.
Important: If Recover Deleted Items From Server is grayed out or isn’t there:
You might be working in offline mode. To work online, see Switch from offline to online mode.
You might not be using an Exchange account. To check, see How do I tell if I have an Exchange account in Outlook. If you don’t have an Exchange account (for example, you’re using Outlook to connect to an IMAP or POP account) you can’t recover a contact that’s been permanently deleted or deleted from the Deleted Items folder. If you are connected to an IMAP account, you might be able to recover contacts from the Trash folder. See how: Restore deleted messages when using an IMAP account.
To help you find a specific contact in the Recover Deleted Items window, click the Subject column header to sort items by that column. Look for the name of the contact. You can also sort by the From column and look for blank entries because contacts don’t have a value in the From field.
Select the contact you want to recover, click Restore Selected Items, and then click OK.
Where do recovered contacts go? When you recover contacts from the Recoverable Items folder, they are moved to the Deleted Items folder. So after you recover a contact, you can find it in your Deleted Items folder and then move it back to your Contacts folder. To find recovered contacts, just search for them in the Deleted Items folder.
Tips for recovering contacts in your Recoverable Items folder
Note that the Deleted On date specifies when items were permanently deleted (by using Shift + Delete) or deleted from the Deleted Items folder. Sort by the Deleted On column to help find the contacts from a subfolder that was permanently deleted because the contacts would all have the same date.
All items in the Recoverable Items folder—including contacts—are represented by the same icon, which looks like an envelope.
To recover multiple contacts, click Restore Selected Items, and press CTRL as you click each contact. You can also recover multiple adjacent contacts by clicking the first item, holding down the Shift key, and then clicking the last contact you want to recover.
Your admin may have specified how long items in the Recoverable Items folder are available for recovery. For example, there may be a policy that deletes anything that’s been in your Deleted Items folder for 30 days, and another policy that lets you recover items in the Recoverable Items folder for up to another 14 days. After this 14 days, your admin may still be able to recover an item. If you can’t find a contact in the Recoverable Items folder, ask your admin if they can recover it.
Unfortunately, if you or your admin can’t find a contact in the Recoverable Items folder, it’s probably been permanently deleted from Outlook and can’t be recovered.
