All You Need to Know about Recalling and Unsending Emails in Outlook 2023

table of Contents

  • Simple steps on how to revoke an email in Outlook
  • Why doesn’t email recovery always work?
    • When the messages are opened.
    • If the message is redirected to other folders
    • public folders
  • Best alternatives to revoke emails in Outlook
    • Solution-1
    • Solution-2
  • Conclusion

Have you ever had to deal with the embarrassment of sending an email to the wrong address? Me neither, but what should we do if we’re ever faced with something like this, looking for a friend. We have all been there. Sending an email to the wrong recipient is not a mistake as it is quite common in the modern world where time is money.

Today, Outlook users recently appeared on the Internet and stated that they are in dire need of a solution when it comes to this issue. If you’re also searching the web to learn how to unsend email in Outlook, sit back and relax because you’ve come to the right place.

Today’s blog will shed some light on some simple ways that can help users to fix this error and for those wondering “can they cancel sending an email in Outlook?” in various search engines.

Let’s find out how to recover emails in Outlook without breaking a sweat.

Simple steps on how to revoke an email in Outlook

  • Open the Outlook app and to get started, click on the “sent items” folder available on the left sidebar of your inbox.
  • From there, you’ll need to select the message you plan to recover to continue.
  • In the next window, click on the “message” option available at the top corner of your window.
  • You will now need to select the “actions” option from the dropdown menu.
  • For the next step you must click on the option that says “call this message”. This will open a window with recovery options on the screen. From the options provided, select “delete unread copies of this message” or the option that says “delete unread copies and replace with a new message”.
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remember-option-tab-for-outlook

remember this message option field for outlook

  • Click the OK button after selecting the option, and if you have selected the “replace with new message” option, simply compose a new message and click Send to finish.

These simple steps can help users to recover messages in Outlook with relative ease.

Note: Even if you continue to send the unsubscribe message, the old email will not disappear. To make the original message disappear, you may need to make sure the recipient opens the revocation message first. That’s why you should always write urgent or something similar in the subject line to make sure the recipient opens it before the first offending email.

This should be common knowledge, as Microsoft has also stated that in certain cases, the recipient may receive a notification if the revoked message is removed from their inbox. Before using this feature, you should be aware that when you retrieve an email, the recipient may still know about the wrong or offensive message sent to them, even if they can’t see it.

Although the solution on how to revoke email in Outlook app or web, it doesn’t always work.

Let’s find out why.

Why doesn’t email recovery always work?

Calling email in Outlook seems easy enough, right? But things don’t always work the way users think. Fast internet is pretty common unless you live in a dead zone, making it obvious that the email you sent is already waiting in someone’s inbox, leading to more problems.

There are several different factors that can cause your attempts to cancel a sent email in Outlook to fail. These are some of the factors that can make the process more complicated.

  • When the messages are opened.

If the recipient opened the original message, they won’t be able to retrieve it. The recipient will be able to read and receive the second revocation message, but the original message will not disappear from their Outlook account inbox. This is one of the main reasons why you need to act fast.

  • If the message is redirected to other folders

If the filter was activated in Outlook due to your first message and the message was redirected to a specific folder, then you will not be able to retrieve the message. This is because the recovery feature only affects emails that are in your inbox. In case the first message goes to some other folder, the recovery will not succeed.

  • public folders
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In case your message has been read by someone from the public folder, the recovery will not be successful. The same is true for other email clients, for example, if the revoke feature works with Outlook, but if you are sending an email to someone who is a Gmail user, the revoke feature will not work.

You should always keep in mind that the revocation feature in Outlook Email 365 is not very secure. It can also end up frustrating the user due to factors outside of their control. In case email recovery is of no use to you, you can check out the alternatives listed below;

Best alternatives to revoke emails in Outlook

Solution-1

Start writing your apology email. Other than double checking to make sure emails are being sent to the right people, this is the simplest solution to take. In case you accidentally forwarded an email to the wrong address, and the email didn’t contain anything vulgar or scandalous, the best way to fix it is to apologize.

A sincere apology is always greatly appreciated and can even build trust with the recipient.

Solution-2

You can try delaying your email so it doesn’t send right away. If you’re constantly responding to emails, trading sensitive information back and forth, chances are you’re going to make a mistake at some point, so delaying sending emails is a better idea. The steps listed below can help users set this up relatively easily in Outlook.

  • Start by opening the Outlook app and clicking on the file option available at the top left corner of your screen.
  • From there, you’ll need to scroll down a bit to select the “manage rules and alerts” option.
  • In the next window, the rules and alerts tab will appear on your screen and there you will have to select the “new rule” option.

Policy Assistant in Outlook

  • For the next step, another window will appear again in which you will have to click on the “Apply rule to the messages I send” option. This option is just below the “run from blank rule” option and press the next button to continue.
  • You don’t have to worry about anything else which is mentioned in the list of conditions and click Next to proceed and after doing that, a confirmation message will appear on your screen where you need to click Yes to confirm.
  • To move forward, select the “delay delivery a few minutes” option. In the same step, select the “various” link and a popup window will appear on your screen asking you to select the duration of your choice. You can enter a number of your choice and 120 minutes is what you can do and when you are done with that click Next.
  • In case you see exceptions, click exceptions if you want and then click Next to continue.
  • Finish the process by giving your rule a name and checking the “include this rule” checkbox if available.
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These simple steps can help users to restore emails in Outlook if the recovery feature fails to help. This can also help answer a popular question like “How to revoke email in Outlook Mac?” with relative ease.

Conclusion

Outlook is one of the most popular services offered by Microsoft and it certainly lives up to the name and the hype as tons of professional users access and manage their email accounts for various jobs.

It is quite common for users to send information or data to the wrong email address. The steps mentioned above can be used to resolve this issue relatively easily, although the best way to fix things if the recovery feature isn’t working is to apologize to the recipient.

We hope this blog has everything you hoped to get.

Until next time!

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Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education

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