To us all, emails are a way of communicating and even a record-keeping. What happens though, if by mistake you delete an email from any correspondence and erase its contents from the Deleted Items folder? Are you able to restore deleted emails from outlook? Luckily, if you act soon enough, in most scenarios, you can restore that email you thought was already abused. In this blog post, we are going to lead you through the step-by-step process of how to restore recently/permanently deleted emails in outlook.
How to Recover Permanently Deleted Emails in Outlook: 3 Effective Solutions
Can You Recover Deleted Emails from Outlook?
You might be wondering can you recover deleted emails from Outlook. If more than 30 days have passed since you have permanently deleted the emails by clearing out the Recoverable Items folder in an attempt to do so and you do not have a backup of all the data in Outlook, this probably cannot be achieved.
Outlook enables the users to delete the unwanted emails using the drag and drop facility so when an email is deleted it is relocated to the deleted items folder. The deleted items are retained in this folder for over thirty days and will be automatically deleted by an automated process.
However, it is still possible to recover deleted Outlook emails that have been permanently deleted in Outlook. Occasionally the deleted email from Outlook fails to be deleted from your system. The information is still present until it gets overwritten.
How to Recover Permanently Deleted Emails in Outlook?
Option A: Recover Deleted Outlook Emails using 4DDIG
When permanent deletions are irretrievable via Outlook’s own recovery tools, a specialist data recovery software like Tenorshare 4DDiG will normally be able to get the job done.
4DDiG is professional-level data recovery software with robust capability to recover deleted Outlook emails even after you deleted the Deleted Items folder. Key strongest points about 4DDiG regarding the recovery of deleted emails within Outlook are compatibility with PST as well as OST files, power scanning algorithms with capability to search deleted emails precisely, and also recovery from variety of sources including hard disks, external drives, crashed computers, etc.
Of note is the fact that 4DDiG is built to recover lost Outlook emails without harming or altering the data in any way. It will safely and fully recover your missing emails.
Recover from PST and OST Outlook file formats
Retrieve 2000+ file types aside from Outlook emails
Recover lost files from hard disk, external media, crashed systems, recycle bin, etc.
No viruses, malware or other harmful software threat
Easy-to-use interface for both beginners and professionals
Industry-leading success rate, recovery up to 97%.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to recover deleted emails in Outlook through 4DDiG:
1. Download and install 4DDiG on your computer. Open the program. Select the drive or directory where your Outlook data files (PST or OST files) are located. This is normally the C drive under Documents->Outlook Files folder.Click on “Scan” and 4DDiG will scan the selected directory for any Outlook recoverable files.
2. Once the scan is complete, use the filter to find your Outlook PST or OST files. Select
the files that you want to recover.
3. Click “Recover” to get back the deleted PST/OST files. Select a location where you want to save.
4. Open Outlook and import the recovered PST/OST files. Go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export to import the recovered files to Outlook.
Option B: Recover Deleted Outlook Emails using Recoverable items
Outlook’s Recoverable Items folder provides another means of recovering deleted emails, even if you’ve emptied the Deleted Items folder.
The Recoverable Items folder is a temporary storage for permanently deleted items from Outlook. When you permanently delete emails in Outlook, copies are stored in Recoverable Items for 30 days before they are deleted.
Following is how to recover deleted emails from Outlook after 30 days:
1.Open the Deleted Items folder in Outlook.
2.Click “Recover items from this folder” above the list.
3. Select the deleted items you want to restore.
4. Press the “Recover Selected Items” button.
5. The emails are recovered to the original folder or Deleted Items folder.
Option C: Recover Deleted Outlook Emails from the Archive folder
AutoArchive moves older Outlook items like emails automatically to an archive file after some time. If you have AutoArchive enabled without realizing it, your “deleted” emails could possibly be archived.
This is how to recover permanently deleted emails in Outlook:
Launch Outlook and go to the “Archive” folder.
Look for the deleted emails in the archive.
Select the emails you want to recover.
Click “Move to” and choose a folder like your Inbox to recover the emails into.
How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook within 30 Days?
If you accidentally deleted an email in Outlook and it was deleted within the past 30 days, you could recover deleted Outlook emails in a hurry by doing the following:
Go to Outlook and into the Deleted Items folder. This holds emails that have been deleted from any Outlook folder for 30 days.
Find and select the deleted email(s) that you want to recover.
Right click on the email(s) you want to recover. Choose “Move” and then select the destination folder, like your Inbox.
Click OK to relocate the email(s) back to the folder you’ve chosen.
This action is convenient to recover deleted emails that are still within the 30 day retention period in the Deleted Items folder.
However, if you have already cleared out the Deleted Items folder, you would need to use the Recover Deleted Items option of Outlook or check the Recoverable Items folder in an effort to recover deleted emails.
FAQs On How to Recover Deleted Emails from Outlook After 30 Days
Q1: Are deleted Outlook emails lost forever?
No, deleted Outlook emails are not necessarily gone forever. When an email is deleted in Outlook, it is first moved to the Deleted Items folder. Emails remain in the Deleted Items folder for 30 days before being permanently deleted.
In the interval of those 30 days, permanently deleting email recovery from the Deleted Items folder is possible. Once 30 days are passed, even permanently deleted emails might still be recoverable from the Recoverable Items folder in Outlook for an additional 14 days.
Q2: How long does Outlook hold on to permanently deleted emails?
By default, Outlook keeps deleted emails in the Recoverable Items folder for 14 days after permanent deletion. This 14-day retention period can be extended up to 30 days maximum for the Recoverable Items folder.
Q3: How do I stop Outlook from permanently deleting emails?
Here are the steps to prevent Outlook from automatically archiving emails in a specific folder:
Open Outlook and navigate to the folder you want to exclude from auto-archiving.
Right-click on the folder and select “Properties.”
In the Properties window, select the “AutoArchive” tab.
Under “AutoArchive Settings”, check the box next to “Do not archive items in this folder.”
Click “OK” to save the changes.
Conclusion
And there you have it, that’s all on how to recover permanently deleted emails in Outlook.
Outlook deletion of the emails by accidentally deleting them does not necessarily mean that the emails are lost forever. There are certain in-built steps such as Deleted Items folder and Recoverable Items through which Outlook provides recovery of such emails for a period of time.
This is where a strong Outlook deleted email restoration tool such as 4DDiG would be needed. If all the ‘recovery’ channels within Outlook are futile, 4DDiG’s sophisticated scanning technologies can recover missing, deleted emails that by necessity, ought to have been deleted from your Outlook program and database.