Microsoft Outlook has a built-in option and email protection mechanism that prevents users from accidentally deleting or losing emails. If a user deletes an email, either accidentally or deliberately, the email is moved to the Deleted Items folder and remains there for up to 30 days. Therefore, one can quickly restore their deleted emails from the Deleted Items folder within 30 days.
However, if the 30 days are over or emails are deleted using the Shift + Delete key combination or Deleted Items folder is emptied by the user, the emails are moved to the Recoverable Items or Deletions folder.
Such permanently deleted emails remain in the Recoverable Items or Deletions folder for up to 14 days as per the default deleted item retention settings. Further, the recoverable items quota is set to a maximum of 30GB.
Users can restore their permanently deleted items from the Recoverable Items folder in Outlook before the retention time or recoverable items quota is elapsed or exceeded. The emails are then purged beyond recovery.
In this article, you will learn the instructions to recover your lost or deleted mailbox items, such as emails, attachments, contacts, calendar items, etc., using the Outlook options and an advanced outlook PST recovery tool.
Steps to Recover Lost or Deleted Mail Items in Outlook
To recover deleted mail items, you should first look into the Deleted Items folder. If found, you can recover and restore the lost emails in a few clicks.
The steps are as follow,
- Open Outlook and click Deleted Items folder on the left pane.
- Use the search bar to find the deleted message or mailbox item you want to recover.
Right-click on the mail item and then choose Move> Other Folder…
Select the email folder where you want to restore the deleted mail item or from where it was deleted and click OK.
This will recover and restore your mail item to where it belongs or in the selected mail folder.
Alternatively, you may also use drag and drop to move the deleted mailbox items back to the original mail folder.
However, if you couldn’t find the lost or deleted email or mailbox item in the Deleted Items folder, check the Recoverable Items to recover the missing mail items.
The steps are as follow,
- In Outlook, click Deleted Items and click Recover Deleted Items from the Server option.
- Select the mail item you want to recover and click OK. Hold the CTRL key and then select the messages to recover multiple emails at once.
- The selected mail items will be recovered and restored to the Deleted Items folder.
- To move the recovered emails back to original folders, right-click on the recovered emails and choose Move> Other Folder…
- Select the folder and click OK.
If you couldn’t find the lost or deleted emails from Deleted Items or Recoverable Items folder as discussed above, it may be due to an inconsistent or damaged PST file.
NOTE: Personal Storage Table or PST is an Outlook data file that stores mailbox items, such as emails, contacts, calendar items, tasks, etc. Even if the mail items are deleted, they remain in the PST file and can be recovered using an advanced outlook PST recovery tool
In such a case, you may try repairing the PST file with the help of the Inbox Repair tool or SCANPST.EXE, which is installed as a part of Microsoft Office installation.
The steps are as follow,
- Close Outlook.
Press Windows + R, type %programfiles%/Microsoft Office or %programfiles(x86)%/Microsoft Office, and open the Officexx folder.
Find and run SCANPST.EXE
Click Browse to select the damaged PST file and click Start.
If errors are found, click Repair.
- After the repair is complete, restart Outlook and follow the steps discussed above to find and restore the lost mail items from the Deleted Items folder or Recoverable Items folder.
To Wrap Up
This article discussed steps to recover lost mailbox items in Outlook using the Outlook options and the Inbox repair tool, also known as SCANPST.EXE. However, if this still doesn’t work, you can use an advanced Inbox Repair tool, such as Stellar Repair for Outlook.
The software not only repairs corrupt or damaged PST files but also restores deleted emails and mail items with complete integrity and precision to a new PST file. Furthermore, you can import this new PST file to your Outlook account via the Import Export wizard and restore all missing or lost mailbox items.
Moreover, you can use the software to recover lost emails from your Outlook PST data files irrespective of corruption. It scans the PST file in read-only mode and thus, does not alter the original file. It also provides advanced filters that can be used to restore deleted items in a few clicks. While saving, apply the ‘Advance Filters’ to include the Deleted Items folder while saving the recovered mailbox items to a new PST file.
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