How to recover deleted emails in Outlook

Get back an email you deleted by mistake: first from Deleted Items, then from the hidden Recoverable Items folder, and, when that fails, with the help of your administrator.

Who this is for: people who use Outlook with a Microsoft 365 work or school account, and the Microsoft 365 administrators who recover mail that users can no longer reach themselves.

Deleted email goes through three stages. When you delete a message, it moves to the Deleted Items folder. When you delete it from Deleted Items, empty that folder, or press Shift+Delete, it moves to the hidden Recoverable Items folder. You can still restore it from there for a limited time. If you also delete it from Recoverable Items, only an administrator can get it back, and only until the retention period ends (this needs single item recovery, which is on by default).

This guide covers Microsoft 365 mailboxes (Exchange Online) in classic Outlook for Windows, new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web. It does not cover Outlook for Mac, the Outlook mobile apps, personal Outlook.com accounts or on-premises Exchange Server.

Before you start

• Act quickly. Exchange Online keeps items in Recoverable Items for 14 days by default. An administrator can raise this to at most 30 days. After that, the item is removed from Exchange Online.
• Your organisation may also have a policy that deletes anything that has been in Deleted Items for 30 days. Your administrator sets these periods.
• In classic Outlook you must be online and connected to the mail server to open Recoverable Items.
• You cannot open Recoverable Items from a mobile browser. Use a PC or Mac.
• A deleted folder can only be recovered while it is still in Deleted Items. The messages that were in a permanently deleted folder can still be recovered one by one from Recoverable Items.
• Administrators who recover mail for a user need the Mailbox Import Export role in Exchange Online.

Step 1: Restore email from Deleted Items

Look here first. Also check Junk Email, in case the message was never deleted but filtered as junk.

Classic Outlook for Windows

1. In the folder list, select Deleted Items (or Junk Email).
2. Select the messages you want back.
3. Right-click them and select Move, then select a folder such as Inbox. You can also use Move on the Home tab, or drag the messages to the folder.
4. Open that folder and check that the messages are there.

New Outlook for Windows

1. Select Deleted Items (or Junk Email). If you do not see your folders, select the button that shows the navigation pane.
2. Select the check box next to each message you want back.
3. On the Home tab, select Move and choose a folder. You can also right-click a message and select Restore, or drag it to a folder.
4. Open the folder you chose and check that the messages are there.

Outlook on the web

1. Select Deleted Items (or Junk Email) in the folder pane.
2. Point to the message and select its check box. If there is no check box, right-click the message and select Move > Inbox or another folder.
3. On the Home tab, select Move, then choose a folder or Select a different folder.
4. Open that folder and check that the message is there.

For a good message in Junk Email in Outlook on the web, select it and select Report > Not junk instead. Outlook then asks whether to report the sender as not junk.

If the message is not in Deleted Items or Junk Email, go to Step 2.

Step 2: Recover email from the Recoverable Items folder

This finds messages that were deleted from Deleted Items, removed when the folder was emptied, or deleted with Shift+Delete.

Classic Outlook for Windows

1. Make sure Outlook is online and connected to the mail server.
2. In the folder list, select Deleted Items. If you see a Trash folder instead, your account does not support this recovery: see the table at the end.
3. On the Home tab, select Recover Deleted Items From Server. A window lists the items you can recover.
4. Select the items you want back, select Restore Selected Items, then select OK.
5. The restored items go to Deleted Items. Open Deleted Items, select them and move them to another folder, as in Step 1.

New Outlook for Windows

1. Select Deleted Items.
2. At the top of the message list, next to Recover items deleted from this folder, select Recover.
3. Select the check box next to each item you want back, then select Restore on the Home tab.
4. Select Go back to deleted items when you have finished.
5. Search your mailbox for the message to check that it is back.

If these steps do not match your screen, you are probably in classic Outlook. Use the classic Outlook steps above.

Outlook on the web

1. Select Deleted Items in the folder pane.
2. At the top of the message list, next to Recover items deleted from this folder, select Recover.
3. Select the items you want back. Use Ctrl+click to pick single items and Shift+click to pick a range. Select all works only when every message is shown in the list.
4. Select Restore.
5. Check the original folder. Items go back to the folder they came from. If that folder no longer exists, messages go to Inbox, calendar items to Calendar, contacts to Contacts and tasks to Tasks.

If the message is not in the list, it has been deleted from Recoverable Items or its time there has run out. Ask your administrator to try Step 3.

Stop Outlook on the web emptying Deleted Items

If Outlook on the web empties Deleted Items each time you sign out, turn this off so deleted mail stays where you can find it:

1. Select Settings (the gear icon).
2. Select Message handling.
3. Under When signing out, clear the Empty my deleted items folder check box.

Step 3 (administrators): Recover email a user cannot see

An administrator can recover messages that the user deleted from Recoverable Items, or that a retention policy deleted, as long as the deleted item retention period for those messages has not ended. This works only if single item recovery was on before the message was deleted. In Exchange Online it is on by default for new mailboxes.

You need the Mailbox Import Export role. If you do not have it, ask the administrator who manages Exchange Online roles to add it to your account. Before you start, know whose mailbox to search and something to search for, such as the sender, a recipient or words in the subject.

In the Exchange admin centre

1. In the Exchange admin centre, go to Recipients > Mailboxes.
2. Select the user's mailbox.
3. Under Others > Recover deleted items, select the Recover deleted items link.
4. Use the filters to find the messages, then select Apply filter.
5. Select the messages and select Recover deleted items.
6. Ask the user to check that the messages are back in their mailbox.

In Exchange Online PowerShell

1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.
2. List the deleted messages you can recover. This example finds email with a subject that contains "Invoice" deleted between 1 and 5 October 2026 (change the words and dates to match your search): Get-RecoverableItems -Identity user@contoso.com -SubjectContains "Invoice" -FilterItemType IPM.Note -FilterStartTime "10/1/2026 12:00:00 AM" -FilterEndTime "10/5/2026 11:59:59 PM"
3. Check that the list shows the messages you want. Change the filters and run the command again until it does.
4. Restore them to the mailbox with the same filters: Restore-RecoverableItems -Identity user@contoso.com -SubjectContains "Invoice" -FilterItemType IPM.Note -FilterStartTime "10/1/2026 12:00:00 AM" -FilterEndTime "10/5/2026 11:59:59 PM"
5. Ask the user to check that the messages are back.

Keep deleted email longer (administrators)

To give people the full 30 days to recover deleted email, change the deleted item retention period in Exchange Online PowerShell. This cannot bring back an item that has already been removed from Exchange Online.

1. For one mailbox, run Set-Mailbox -Identity user@contoso.com -RetainDeletedItemsFor 30
2. For all user mailboxes, run Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'UserMailbox'" | Set-Mailbox -RetainDeletedItemsFor 30
3. To check a mailbox, run Get-Mailbox user@contoso.com | Format-List SingleItemRecoveryEnabled,RetainDeletedItemsFor. It shows whether single item recovery is on and how many days deleted items are kept. If SingleItemRecoveryEnabled is False, turn it on with Set-Mailbox -Identity user@contoso.com -SingleItemRecoveryEnabled $true

What can no longer be recovered

• Items whose deleted item retention period has ended (14 days by default, at most 30), unless the mailbox is on hold.
• A folder you created that was deleted from Deleted Items or with Shift+Delete. The folder is gone even on hold; only its messages can be recovered.
• On a mailbox that is not on hold, the oldest items, earlier than expected, when the Recoverable Items folder reaches its warning quota (20 GB by default; the limit is 30 GB). Items are then removed oldest first.
• Calendar items are an exception: they stay in Recoverable Items for 120 days by default, so they can be recovered for longer than email.

When it goes wrong

Related help articles

• How to use Outlook for Beginners
• Using Outlook Web App on Windows and Mac
• How to Check the Archive Mailbox Size
• Managing Exchange Online Services