Outlook email: How to recall email in Outlook or unsend an email

• By Sonal Choudhary -
Published On: February 28, 2022

Have you ever had that sinking feeling where you sent out an Outlook email and then, regretted it right after? Maybe you marked the wrong recipient, the email was incomplete or full of typos, the attachment was missing, or you sent it out in an impulse. Whatever the reason be, you'd be happy to know that it is possible to delete that message from the recipient's inbox or replace it with a new one. Yes, that's right! Microsoft Outlook offers a recall feature that allows you to retrieve an email you've sent without anyone seeing it.

Want to know how? In this article, we tell you all about how to recall an email in Outlook, what you need to use recall, and why the function might not work at times.

Key requirements to use Outlook recall

Before you go on to un-send an email, you need to ensure if this is even an option for you. Here are some key requirements for using the recall function on Outlook:

• You and your recipient must be on Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 server
• You and your recipient must have an email account within the same organisation
• You must be using the Outlook desktop client for Windows; recall doesn't work on the web-based or mobile version of Outlook

How to recall an email in Outlook?

If you comply with all the above-mentioned conditions, follow this simple how-to guide to recall an email on Outlook or replace it with a new message.

• Go to the Sent Items folder on the left sidebar of your Outlook inbox
• Double-click on the message you want to recall to open it in a new window
• Select the Message tab at the top of the window
• If you have the Classic Ribbon, click on Actions and from the drop-down menu, select Recall This Message. If you're using the Simplified version, click on the three dots (…) at the end of the toolbar, go to Actions and then select Recall This Message
• On the pop-up window that appears, select one of the two options: "Delete unread copies of this message" to recall the message, "Delete unread copies and replace with a new message" to replace the sent message with a new one
• Check the box that says "Tell me if the recall succeeds or fails for each recipient"
• Click on OK
• In case you have selected the recall-only option, your job is done here. If you have selected the replace option, Outlook will open a new window for you to revise the message. Compose your new email and then click the Send button

Possible results of Outlook email recall

What happens after you have given the command to recall or replace a message in Outlook depends on the recipient's settings. Listed below are different scenarios that determine the potential success or failure of an Outlook recall after you have sent a message to someone and then, recalled the original message and replaced it with a new one. Please note that in all the scenarios the recipient will receive both the original message and recall message.

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

Scenario 3:

Scenario 4:

FAQs

Why can't I recall Outlook email?

Firstly, make sure that you're meeting all the conditions for Outlook recall to work i.e., both you and your recipient must be on an Exchange server within the same organisation and using Outlook as the email client. If these conditions apply to you, then your recall attempt could have failed due to different factors that may or may not be in your control.

Here are a few reasons why Outlook email recall could have failed despite meeting all the key requirements:

• If the recipient has already opened the original email (Note: They'll still get the recall message but the original email will stay in their inbox)
• If your message was rerouted to a folder other than inbox due to a filter or rule
• If your message is sent to a public folder

What to do if Recall This Message command is not visible?

If the Recall This Message option is not visible to you, you may not have an Exchange server account. You can go to Tools --> Account Settings --> E-mail and check the Type column to see the type of email account for each entry in your Outlook profile. It is also possible that you can't see the recall option because the feature is not available within your organisation.

Is there an alternative to recall messages in Outlook?

While the obvious alternative is to send out an apologetic message, you can save yourself the embarrassment by setting up a delay time on your Outlook email. This will give you time to reconsider a message before it lands in the recipient's inbox. You can easily set this up under File --> Manage Rules & Alerts option in your Outlook email account.