We all have been to that place where we feel all wrong when we accidentally send the mail to the wrong person or sent a mail without attaching the documents. The mail you want to recall might have typos, mistakes, or private information that you did not want to share with the person you accidentally mailed it. But worry not because we have the solution for you to how to recall an email in outlook.
We have been seeing a lot of changes these days in messaging apps, you can always unsend a message that you have just sent or you can even delete it for everyone. But the unsending message option in itself comes with a time limit.
You need to be recently mailed or sent a message in order for the mail or message to recall. MS outlook has a 60-minute limit for you to recall the mail so you better hurry up. If you want to recall an email in outlook that has been accidentally sent then this guide is for you. Once your email is recalled, the person it was sent to won’t be able to see it. Here are four important steps to learning How to recall an email in outlook:
Table of Contents
Step 1
In this step, you need to be looking for the “Sent items” folder. You can spot it in the left section. Once you have spotted the “Sent mail” option, simply click it and search for the mail that you want to get unsent. Once you have found the mail, just double-click it.
Step 2
When you have your mail open in front of your screen, choose the “Message” option in the toolbar at the top. Now you will see the Move button along with rules, OneNote, and “Actions” in the mid-right section. Click the “Actions”
(Note: If you cannot see the Move button or Actions option in the message section, then you need to find the 3 dots sign and click it. Once clicked you will a drop-down menu of several different options including ”Actions”.)
Step 3
After you click the Actions button, a drop-down menu will be displayed and you will see options like; “Edit message”, “Recall this message..”, “Resend this message” and more. Now you just needs to click at “Recall this message”
Step 4
After you select the “Recall this message” option, a pop-up will appear and you will be presented with two options to choose from: “Delete Unread Copies of This Message or Delete Unread Copies and Replace With a New Message”.
When you select the 2nd option it will allow you to replace the message. And when you are making changes the outlook will recall your message. So once you are done making changes, you can simply press “Send.”
Alternative
Here is another alternative for you so that you know how to recall an email in outlook.
After step 1 is done you can also select “File” in the toolbar to recall an email. Once you click the file option, a drop-down menu will appear with a “Message Resend and Recall” option. Once you select that you will be moved to step 4. Now you are simply going to be choosing how to recall the message.
What is required for the message to get recalled?
- You and the person you have sent the mail to must have outlook and an exchange server email account. If the recipient is not using the same client as you which is outlook then it’s more likely that your message recall will fail. For example, if they are using Gmail or Yahoo.
- The mail should be unread by your recipient. If the recipient has already read the email then there is no way you can recall and replace it with a new message. Even when you try to go back and take action by following these steps, the procedure will fail.
- Some emails usually end up in a spam folder or project folder which means if that happens then it would not be possible for you to recall the message.
- The recipient’s email needs to be open when you perform a recall of the message.
Creating a delay
If you cannot recall the sent message for the above reasons then you can always create a delay to stay careful the next time around. Here are a few steps to follow when creating a delay in an email:
- Go to the MS Outlook general tab and click on the “File” option there.
- Select “Manage and rules” at the end.
- A window will pop up where you need to click on “New Rule”
- Select “Apply rule on messages I send” and then proceed by clicking “Next”. Then click “Yes” for confirmation.
- Now choose the select box that says: “defer delivery by a number of minutes”. And choose the delay time and press apply.
- Finally, press next and click “Finish” at the end.
Conclusion
In this article, we have talked about how to recall an email in outlook that has been sent accidentally to someone. There could be plenty of reasons why you want to unsend this mail, which include that you might have missed attaching a document.
We have discussed how you can recall your message in just 4 steps. Outlook allows you to recall your message within 60 minutes so you are in luck. But not every email can be recalled and here is why: If you failed to call the message then that simply means that the recipient has read the message already.
Or that the recipient may not be using the same client as you which is Outlook. Another reason may include your message being dropped in the recipient’s spam folder. You will be unable to recall the message if all these reasons came true.
So what you can do is create a delay for the next time around. There are six simple steps in creating an email delay which will give you plenty of time for a preview run so that there is nothing you have missed this time around.