How Do I Know if My Email Was Recalled in Outlook?

Being able to recall your emails is a really handy option. Maybe you sent the wrong information to the wrong recipient. Or perhaps you forgot to add something really important to your email, such as an attachment.

Irrespective of the reasons that may determine you to recall an email, let us all be thankful for this feature.

Microsoft Outlook is an email service that supports email recalling. However, there’s a series of conditions that need to be met for this feature to work.

Key Conditions For Recalling an Email on Outlook:

• First: The recipient has not yet opened the email.
• Second: You both need to use a Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange account.
• Third: The email accounts are managed by the same organization. The organization enabled email recalling.
• Fourth: You need to use the Outlook app for recalling emails. You can’t do that in Outlook on the web.
• Fifth: The email is not protected by Azure Information Protection. You can’t recall these emails.

How Do I Know if I Successfully Recalled an Email in Outlook?

When recalling the email, make sure to tick the following option: Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient.

As a result, Outlook will send you a notification about each recipient. If the recall was successful, you’ll see a Recall Success note in front of the subject.

On the other hand, if the recall failed, you’ll get a Recall failure note.

Alternatively, if you forgot to check this option when recalling the email, you can use the tracking option. Open the Sent folder and select the email you recalled. Then click on the Tracking button in the ribbon to check the recall status.

Steps to Recall an Email in Outlook

Note: If the Recall This Message option is not available for you, this can mean one of two things: you either don’t have an Exchange account, or your organization disabled this option.

1. Launch Outlook and click on the Sent folder.
2. Double click on the email you want to recall.
3. Click on the Message tab.
4. Then go to Actions →  Recall This Message.
5. You now have two options:
   • Delete unread copies of this message. Select this option if you don’t want to replace the email with a new one.
   • Delete unread copies and replace with a new message. Click on this option if you want to send a new email to replace the one you’re recalling.

Using the Recall option does not guarantee the recipient won’t get the message. It does not guarantee the email will vanish from their inbox either. Oftentimes, recalling an email fails.

The best approach is to always double-check your emails before you send them. Check if the information you’re sending is correct. Make sure you’re sending the email to the right person.

It’s always best to take a couple of minutes to review your emails than regret you hit the Send button later.