Have you deleted or lost a valuable piece of information through your emails lately?
This is an alarm that you need to keep your folders well-organized. But don’t worry, not everything’s lost — not even the permanently deleted emails.
There are multiple built-in ways and software to help you recover permanently deleted emails.
How To Retrieve Permanently Deleted Emails in Gmail?
Android’s MUST email provider – Gmail has a 30-day deleted message retrieval policy.
This means that you can check the deleted messages and retrieve them from the ‘Trash’ folder, given the fact that the message has been deleted no more than 30 days before.
Remember – after the 30-day period expires, there’s NO WAY to retrieve a deleted email – make sure this time frame is kept and obtained!
a) To retrieve emails in Gmail
- Enter the Gmail app (via mobile device).
- Then, press the hamburger menu bar on the top left corner of your screen.
Here, you can find all your mail folders: inbox, sent, spam, drafts, and the one you’re looking for – the Trash folder.
- Go inside the Trash folder and find the email/s you wish to retrieve. Tap on them and click the ‘Move to’ button.
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- Now, you’ll have the option to retrieve the email in the Inbox folder (where you’ve probably deleted it initially from). Or move it to the Archive folder and Save it.
- If you’re accessing Gmail via desktop, open the Trash folder and select the message by clicking on the little box at the beginning.
- Then, click the Move to button, which looks as presented in the picture below, located on the mid-horizontal bar.
b) Recovering a Permanently Deleted Email
If you’re aiming to retrieve a permanently deleted email in Gmail (older than 30 days) and no longer in the Trash folder – this can only be done with the Google Admin console.
This console gives you 25 additional days to recover emails from servers — ONLY IF you’re an administrator for your workspace or have a Google Admin account.
- From here, select the user and further access some of the data which can no longer be seen because the 30-day timeframe is over.
- Choose the option to Restore data. This way, all data backed up from the previous 25-day period will be retrieved.
Luckily, there is another option available for the no-admins folks. That’s the Google Recovery Tool, similar to a Google Support option.
- So, if a message is nowhere to be found, just type in ‘Gmail messages are missing’ in your web browser (mobile and desktop devices). And you’ll be redirected to their support webpage.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and find ‘The Steps above didn’t help’ section.
- Click the arrow next to ‘Most of my emails are missing.’
- Next, click on the blue link, ‘We can help you find your missing emails and secure your account.’
- You’ll be asked to confirm the account or switch to another one (optionally), depending on the device you’re using.
Note: Mind that this option is not always going to work. It can only aim to retrieve deleted and permanently deleted information within a span of 30-days in the past.
For this matter, you can always try data recovery software (listed in the article below).
How To Retrieve Permanently Deleted Emails in Outlook?
Outlook or Windows mail has a slightly different surface than Google’s mail and one convenient built-in retrieving option.
Outlook (most recently used and updated emails) has two folders – Trash and Deleted Items.
If you deleted or moved an email to the Trash, the first step to do is
- Enter your email account and locate the message you’re looking for in the Trash folder.
- Now, right-click the message and select Move to. Here, you can enter the location you wish to relocate this message to (you can even enter the folder’s name if it’s not showing on screen).
- When the messages from the Trash folder get permanently deleted, they’re relocated to the Deleted Items folder.
Note: This is Outlook’s built-in backup folder, which automatically deletes these items after 30 days. Moreover, even if you delete the messages from the Deleted Items folder, you can still retrieve them!
- Just tap or click on the following option:
All the available messages are going to be presented on the next screen.
- From here, you can either:
- Select the recoverable items check-marker and retrieve all messages, or;
- Select a single message by right-clicking it and choosing ‘Restore.’
How To Recover Permanently Deleted Emails on Yahoo?
Yahoo Mail has the shortest time span for retrieving lost and permanently deleted messages – only a week!
Your deleted emails on Yahoo mail go into the Trash can – from which they could be retrieved in an unknown period of time – but not longer than 30 days.
This is because Yahoo performs an ‘occasional purging’ of your Trash – which is not specified. That said, make sure that what’s deleted actually needs to be deleted.
- Now, you can select a message or multiple messages and choose to retrieve them in your inbox.
- You can also move them into a separate location (if you have multiple organizational folders, like receipts, PDF files, specific sender’s folder, etc.).
After deleting an email from the Trash can – you can say that the email has been permanently deleted from your mail. In other words, there’s only one way (except software) to retrieve it.
That is by submitting a request to Yahoo mail’s support center.
- Search for ‘Recover lost or deleted email’ and click the ‘Send a restore request’ button.
- On the next screen, you should file the requested information:
- your email,
- Yahoo ID,
- and the reason for your request.
The best way to retrieve your deleted email is to state that you have ‘Mail: Accidentally deleted messages on web mail.’ By stating this, the support team focuses on your total email traffic.
- They’ll also ask you when was the last time you’ve seen your email.
Note: You must react fast – they can only answer requests submitted within 7 days.
However, if you remember seeing your message within the last few hours (there’s also this option), make sure to be as precise as possible. Because by pointing out a precise time, you’ll direct the support team and start retrieving the message.
How To Retrieve Permanently Deleted Emails on Apple Mail?
Apple Mail is the primary client on Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Famous for being superior regarding security compared to PCs and Androids, Apple Mail’s sync options with the base – iCloud, is pretty amazing.
Thus, you can easily permanently deleted emails in many ways:
- For example, if you’ve deleted an email from your iPhone/ iPad and immediately realized it, you can simply shake your phone back and forth (having your mail app open on screen).
The message will be returned with your permission to Undo your previous deleting action.
Note: This works ONLY IF this was the last action you did on your iPhone/ iPad.
Otherwise, you’d have to enter your Trash folder and manually retrieve your message.
- You can do this by clicking on the left-facing arrow in the corner below the message.
This method is the same for Macs and iPhone/ iPad devices (with the slightest possibility to finding the arrow somewhere else, depending on the model).
But what if the messages are no longer in the Trash folder?
- Luckily, there is the Time Machine option that’s unique for devices connected to iCloud.
- This is the Apple backup recovery option, and if you have it turned ON, you shouldn’t worry about retrieving even older permanently deleted messages.
- Enter the Mail app > choose the Time Machine icon > select Enter Time Machine.
- Navigate back in time using the specific timer placed in the middle right of the screen.
- Drift through time until finding the email you’re looking for > select it, and click Restore.
Retrieving Permanently Deleted Emails Using Software
You can be sure of one thing from the methods we’ve previously described: there’s always a solid possibility to recover an email permanently deleted if you react fast — within a week/ month since you’ve seen its trace.
And for an email to be recovered – it HAS to exist somewhere:
- on the cloud,
- on some backup storage on the device,
- or on a server.
Retrieving old and permanently deleted messages from a server is the hardest thing to do. Moreover, it’s done with the help of specially designed software tools that can go back in time and find traces of the emails.
Note: None of this software is 100% accurate. It’s critical to know that it doesn’t guarantee you to find your emails in the exact form that they were. This software can find traces only: attachments, sender’s addresses, and recipient’s details, or simply – nothing.
We recommend using this method as your last resort; when everything seems lost and hopeless.
Here are some of the most popular and functioning data recovery software tools to help you in retrieving permanently deleted emails:
AnyRecover is a data recovery tool that can help you get back, i.e., recover a wide range of 1.000+ file types:
- Photos,
- Media,
- Documents,
- conversations, and emails along with their attachments.
It’s suitable for Macs and Windows devices + it has an extremely high recovery rate from multiple source types (from disks to clouds).
- First, download and install the tool > then click the ‘Start’ button from the corner, and choose a location of your device that you want to be scanned for lost files.
- After hitting the ‘Start’ button, a thorough scan will start; it’ll analyze and show recoverable files right before your eyes.
- This is a handy asset because you don’t have to wait for the entire scan to finish – after ‘spotting’ your desired email, you can click the ‘Stop’ button immediately.
- After selecting and previewing the wanted files and emails, hit the ‘Recover’ button. This way, your emails/files would be recovered in the destination file folder of the AnyRecover tool.
This is an entirely free data recovery software by Clever Files, and it works efficiently on Macs and PCs.
Here’s the basic procedure to retrieve messages from any email provider using this tool on your Mac:
- After you install it from the Apple Store > open the program.
- Select the disk or device you want to scan first since this software is connected to your iCloud and all the available devices.
- Click ‘Search for lost data’ and wait for the scan to finish.
- When the entire process is done – in the small search bar (in the top right corner), you should write .emlx files. This is the name of email files found during any data retrieving process.
Note: This will filter all retrieved files and leave only the emails. Therefore, selecting and finding the specific email you’re looking for is easier.
- Finish by clicking the ‘Recover’ button – in the far right corner below.
Finishing Words
We’ve covered everything regarding retrieving a deleted email from the most famous email providers out there.
As you can conclude for yourself, there is a time frame in which an email could be retrieved after placing it in the Trash folder.
So, a piece of advice before we wrap this up: If you wish to move an email from a folder and feel like it’s unnecessary at the time BUT could be useful – it’s best to archive it instead of deleting it.
P.S. The archive folder doesn’t have a time frame, unlike the Trash folder.
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