How to Recall an Email in Outlook

How to Recall an Email in Microsoft Outlook

You can recall an email in Outlook if both you and the recipient use Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 accounts, and the recipient hasn’t read the message yet.

1. Open your Sent Items folder and double-click the email you want to recall to open it.
2. Go to the Message tab and click Actions in the Move group.
3. Select Recall This Message from the dropdown menu.
4. Choose your recall option:
   • Delete unread copies of this message – Removes the email from the recipient’s inbox.
   • Delete unread copies and replace with a new message – Lets you send a corrected version.
   • Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient – Recommended to track the outcome.
5. Click OK to complete the recall process.

Important Limitations

• The recipient must be using Outlook and be on the same Exchange or Microsoft 365 organization.
• Recall will not work if the recipient has already read the message.
• If the recipient has rules that move messages to other folders, recall may fail.
• The original message may still appear in the recipient’s inbox with a notification that you attempted to recall it.