Delete or recall sent Outlook email messages

Users of Microsoft Outlook who accidentally send email messages only wish they had a means to erase or recall them right away. You’ll be glad to hear that there’s still hope and that occasionally you can fix any problems you may have had while sending email messages with Outlook.

You may simply change or recall emails you’ve sent if you use Microsoft 365 or Outlook to deliver the message. You may edit a message you’ve sent and recover it from the mailboxes of the recipients who haven’t yet opened it by following the instructions in this brief tutorial for recalling messages in Outlook. Microsoft also enables you to add that crucial missing attachment, picture, or presentation; in certain cases, you may do this without anybody realizing you committed the initial error.

Even after you’ve hit Send, you may cancel the message and send a new one using the Outlook Message Recall tool. However, it’s crucial to be aware that the service is only accessible if both you and your receiver have Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange email accounts that are associated with the same company. A message recall will sadly not function if your email account is configured using MAPI or POP. It is also important to note that messages in Outlook on the web or those that are secured by Azure Information Protection cannot be recalled.

Delete an email that has been already sent

The steps below should be followed after opening the Microsoft Outlook email programme if you want to retrieve a sent email message.

1. Launch Outlook and click the Sent Items folder in the main message window’s left-hand menu.
2. Double-click the message you want to remember to bring it up. It is not enough to just choose the message to get the necessary alternatives.
3. From the Classic Ribbon, choose Message > Actions > Recall This Message depending on the view you have enabled in your Outlook programme.
4. In the event that you choose the Simplified Ribbon over the Classic Ribbon. To see the new menu with Actions listed towards the bottom, choose the Message tab and then the “…” three dots symbol.
5. From the fly-out menu under the Actions option, choose Recall This Message.
6. Regrettably, you are probably not utilizing the necessary Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 services if you don’t see Recall This Message in your Outlook programme.
7. Choose one of the options in the Recall This Message pop-up box that appears.
8. Delete all unused copies of this message.
9. Discard unread copies and substitute a fresh message. If you choose this, your previous message will be replaced with the new one when you compose it and send it.

Recalling Outlook messages

It is not always feasible to successfully recall emails and replace them with newer updated ones due to the intricacy of doing so. For illustration:

If the recipient has selected to automatically process requests and responses to meetings.

When an email message is recalled, the receiver will be notified and shown the original messages that were marked as read on their computer. You will get a notice requesting you want to remove the mail. The message will nonetheless continue to exist in the recipient’s Outlook folder.

If the recipient has not selected to automatically process requests and respond to meetings.

The original communication will be destroyed and the receiver will be told that you, the sender, have removed it from their inbox if they open the recalled message before the original message. The recipient’s inbox will include both the original and recalled message if the recall is unsuccessful.

The receiver will get a notice informing them that the Outlook recall attempt failed if the message is in a public folder or if the recalled message and original message are in different folders. Sadly, this will happen regardless of the setups and the message’s read state. The sender will get a message informing them that the recall was successful if the receiver has not received the original message.