Morning everyone!
Lets jump into how to recall an email in Outlook. Super useful is you sent an email too early and want to unsend it.
I’ve also written this post on Medium, in case you prefer reading over there!
Introduction
I hear you, you’ve sent an email and then realised you forgot to actually attach the file. Or you noticed a bunch of grammatical errors right after you hit the send button, how convenient!
You’re in luck, there is a way to recall the email so that you can fix it and then resend once you’re ready.
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Limitations
Their are some limitations for recalling email, I’ve listed these below but they mainly revolve around using the same Microsoft technology. So if you’re emailing someone that doesn’t use Microsoft Exchange, you’ll not be able to recall an email in Outlook.
- Both the sender and recipient must be in the same organisation
- Both the sender and recipient must be using Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange
- If the recipient has read the email – it cannot be recalled
- The recipient will receive a notification of the recall
- Recalls only work on the desktop version of Microsoft Outlook
How To Recall An Email In Outlook
Just to double check, make sure you are using the Desktop version of Outlook – this feature is available in the web or mobile versions. Follow the below steps to recall an email:
1) In Outlook, Open your Sent Items folder
2) Find the email that you want to recall
3) Double-Click the email to open it in a separate window
4) On the Top Menu, find the Three Dots (…)
5) It’s here, that you will see the Recall Message option
I’ll include a screenshot below as well to illustrate step 4 and 5. I have had to redact a bunch of information, but you get the gist!
It’s worth noting that if you don’t see the three dots (…), you should instead use the below method:
1) In Outlook, Open your Sent Items folder
2) Find the email that you want to recall
3) Double-Click the email to open it in a separate window
4) On the Top Menu, open the Message tab
5) Find the Move button
6) From here, select Actions and finally Recall This Message…
I’ll include another screenshot of the steps above too:
With both the options above, you should receive a popup asking how you want to recall the email in Outlook.
Adding A Delay In Outlook
A little known function in Outlook, is to set a delay for sending emails. This gives you at least some time to delete the email before it actually sends.
This is done using the Rules & Alerts functionality built into Outlook. Meaning, that you can set this up for any version of Outlook: desktop; mobile and web!
Below are the steps to follow for setting this up:
1) In Outlook, open the Home or Settings menu
2) Open Manage Rules & Alerts
3) Select New Rule
4) Select Apply rule on messages I send
5) Ignore the Conditions, leave this blank
6) For the Actions, select Defer delivery by a number of minutes
7) Enter the number of minutes to wait – 120 is the max
8) Ignore the Exceptions options
9) Hit the Finish button, and you’re all done!
That’s it! Outlook will now wait however long you told it to before it actually sends the email. This is always helpful if you’re the sort of person to quickly write and email and send it without thinking. It gives you some extra time to think and review before the email is actually delivered.
Why Can’t I Recall An Email In Outlook?
So what happens if you don’t see the option to recall the email in Outlook? Well, unfortunately, sometimes this option just isn’t available. I’ve put a couple of reasons for this below:
- Your email has already been opened by the recipient
- You aren’t in the same Microsoft organisation as the recipient
- You aren’t in the desktop version of Microsoft Outlook
Hopefully, you’ve seen that recalling emails in Outlook isn’t a 100% safe option. So make sure not to consistently send emails that you aren’t completely confident in. I also don’t like it when people have to recall an email. To me at least, it shows that they weren’t careful to review the email before sending, and are now doubling their work. Mistakes happen, of course, but don’t rely on recalls for everything.
FAQ
Does The Recipient Have To Use Outlook?
Yes. If they use another email client, then the recall option won’t work. Example of other email platforms that don’t support recalls include: Gmail; Proton; CPanel; and many more.
Does This Only Work For Individual Mailboxes?
Nope, if you email a public folder for example you can still recall the message. But if ANYONE in the public folder has read the email, then you won’t be able to recall.
Will The Recipient Know I Recalled The Email?
Yes. Outlook usually notifies them that the recall has occurred.
Is There A Deadline To Recalling Emails?
Not technically. As long as the recipient hasn’t opened the email yet, you can recall it over an unlimited timeline.
Conclusion
You’ve seen how email recalls in Outlook are useful, but also how they shouldn’t be relied upon consistently. If you are the sort of person to repeatedly send emails without thinking and wishing you hadn’t sent them, then I would suggest adding a delay to your outbound emails.
I hope you enjoyed this article and learned something from it. See you next time!
Enjoy! 🎉
