Perhaps you wrote an email to your colleagues and accidentally clicked Send before you had the opportunity to attach a document they needed. Or maybe you hastily sent a not so nice email to someone and immediately regretted it. Regardless of what happened, as an Outlook user, you should consider the built-in email client solution for situations like this: the recall email on outlook.
Email withdrawals or recall on outlook are useful because they can prevent the recipient from seeing the wrong email at all. Follow our step-by-step instructions below if you want to recover an email from Outlook. If you also want to know how to delay your emails in Outlook (to avoid accidentally sending emails in the future), later in this guide you will learn how to do this.
Conditions that may make Email Recall not to work
Starting the recall process of email on outlook does not mean that it works as intended. At the current Internet speeds (unless you live in a dead zone), this bad email is likely to be waiting in someone’s inbox and causing a variety of problems. These are the factors that can cancel your recalls or at least complicate the process.
When the Message has been Opened
When a recipient opens the email you sent, you cannot recall it. The recipient can still access and read the second recall message, but the original remains in their Outlook inbox. This is one of the reasons why you need to act quickly.
When Emails are Directed to other Folders
If your first message triggered a filter and Outlook redirected it to a specific folder, your recovery will fail. The recovery option only affects emails that remain in the inbox. If the first message is waiting elsewhere, it will not be recalled.
Public Folders Situation
When someone reads their first email that is hidden in a public folder, the deletion fails. Regardless of whether the recipient or the sign-in account marks the email as read, it is still too late.
When the Emails are Sent to other Email Clients
The recovery function works with Outlook. For example, if you send an email to someone using Gmail, the recall won’t work.
Mobile Apps
If you use Exchange ActiveSync settings for Outlook on mobile devices, the recovery option may not work. This is because the system juggles with different versions of Outlook during synchronization and cannot complete the process, especially when your mobile device is offline.
How to Recall Outlook Emails
Step 1: Open the Sent Items folder and locate the email you want to recall. It should be at the top of the list. You must double-click this email to fully open it before proceeding to the next step.
Step 2: Click the Message tab on the toolbar to activate it. Then go to the Move section and click the More Move Actions button, which is identified by a letter and an envelope (see image below).
Step 3: Click Recall this message option in the drop-down list.
Step 4: A pop-up window will show on your screen. Here you have two options: delete the unread copies of this message or delete copies that have not been read and replace them with a new message. Outlook also displays an option to notify you when the operation is successful or fails.
Select your options and click the button the says, OK to continue.
If you have deleted the message, congratulations! If you want to replace it, go to step 5.
Step 5: If you want to create a replacement, Outlook opens a second screen where you can view the message. When you compose your new email, Outlook retrieves your old message and displays a notification (if you selected this option). Simply click the Send button when you have finished with the revised message.
Requirements to Recall an Email
- You and your recipient must have an email account on the Exchange server and use Outlook as their email client.
- The recipient’s mailbox is open when you try to restore it.
- The original message is not read and is in the recipient’s inbox.
- The message was not affected by any process, e.g., from a rule, or an add-on, or a spam filter
Conclusion
If your organization uses Microsoft Outlook on the communication collaborative server, Microsoft Exchange Server, it offers certain advantages over users of standard Outlook accounts, such as: For example, the ability to search more than one mailboxes, improved security features, and the ability to recall email message. This is ideal if you forget to provide important information, discover a mistake in a message, or find the dreaded “Reply All” button in a private email. You can also modify the recalled message.