How to Recall an Email in Outlook on Any Device

Have you ever sent an email and instantly wished you could take it back? Good news—Outlook has a feature that allows you to do exactly that: recall your sent email. This useful function can be a real help, especially if you catch the mistake quickly and your recipient hasn’t opened the email yet.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about recalling emails in Outlook—whether you’re using the desktop app, Outlook.com, or an older version on your PC. We’ll also explain why recalling emails doesn’t always work, and show you how you can delay your email delivery so you’ll have extra time to double-check your messages after you hit send.

When you recall an email in Outlook, you’re trying to unsend an email you just sent, hoping that the recipient hasn’t had a chance to read it. This is helpful if you realize you sent a message that’s incomplete, forgot to attach an important file, or sent the email to the wrong person. Microsoft Outlook offers you two options to correct the mistake:

• Delete the message from the recipient’s inbox: If you choose this, the recipient won’t be able to see your original email—it will be removed from their inbox.
• Replace the original email with a corrected one: This option lets you fix any mistakes or add missing information, then send the corrected email in place of the old one.

It’s important to know that recalling an email only works if both you and the recipient are using Microsoft Exchange or Office 365 accounts. Also, this feature is available in Outlook versions 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Outlook 365.

To recall an email in Outlook on your desktop, both you and the recipient need to have a few things in common for it to work properly:

1. You both need to use PCs—this feature is not available on Mac.
2. You must use the Outlook desktop app. The web version and mobile app do not support the recall feature.
3. Both accounts must be Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365.
4. You both need to be in the same organization, which usually means your email addresses end with the same domain.

If all of these conditions are met, you can recall an email you sent by mistake.

On the Outlook App

Step 1: Open Sent Items

Open Outlook and, on the left side of your screen, click “Sent Items” to see all the emails you’ve sent.

Step 2: Find the Email You Want to Recall

Locate the Outlook message you want to recall and double-click it to open it in a new window.

Step 3: Recall the Email

Make sure you’re on the “Message” tab at the top. Click “File” in the top left, then hover your mouse over “Resend and Recall.” Choose “Recall this message.”

If you don’t see these options, click “Move” from the toolbar, then select “Actions“, and finally “Recall this message.”

Step 4: Choose the Recall Option

A pop-up window will appear, where you can pick one of the following:

• “Delete unread copies of this message.”
• “Delete unread copies and replace them with a new message.”

You can also choose to get a notification from Outlook telling you whether the recall worked or not. Make your choices, then click “OK.”

Step 5: Edit the Email

If you choose to replace the email, Outlook will open a new window for you to edit your message. Make your changes, then click “Send.”

Step 6:  Confirmation

Check the box that says “Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient.” Then, click “OK.”

On the Website

You may want to use the recall feature if you accidentally send an email from Outlook.com or any of Microsoft’s web-based email platforms like @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @msn.com.

Unfortunately, recalling a message isn’t available for these web-based services. When you hit send on these services, the email goes out immediately—it leaves your server right away, so you can’t pull it back.

mail delivery. A delay of about 5 to 10 minutes is usually enough to review your message and catch any mistakes.