Recover Deleted Items After Emptying Outlook’s Deleted Items Folder June 11, 2009

This feature requires you to use a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, 2003, or 2007 account. Most home and personal accounts do not use Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft Office Outlook provides a way to recover items after you delete them permanently, even after you empty the Deleted Items folder.

 Note   Your Exchange administrator specifies the retention time for items that are deleted permanently on the server running Exchange. After this time elapses, you cannot recover the deleted items.

You can view and recover deleted items (including the items that were deleted permanently when you selected items and pressed SHIFT+DELETE or SHIFT+ ) after you have emptied the Deleted Items folder.

1. Click on the Deleted Items folder, then click the Tools menu and select Recover Deleted Items.  
2. Click an item and then click Recover Selected Items.

 Tip   To select multiple items, press CTRL as you click each item.

Each recovered item is restored to the Deleted Items folder.

 Note   You cannot recover an item if it does not appear in the Recover Deleted Items dialog box.

This will save you heart ache if you delete an item and then realize that you didn’t mean to delete it.  But don’t wait … it will not be available for recovery forever.  I tell clients to plan on only 1 week, although your IT Department might hold them longer.