So, if you send something in error, do the Recall as quickly as possible!Ī key suggestion is to use an Outlook Delay Send Rule, which I have discussed as well. Once someone opens your original message, they will have seen it and read it, regardless of if your Recall then works. The faster you send out the Recall, the better chance that it will succeed. Check the “Help” for your specific version of Outlook if you need assistance). There are some minor differences between the various MS Outlook versions, but the key steps are the same. (Note: The steps below are for most versions of MS Office. Using the Outlook Recall Feature in Microsoft Office: Using the “Client” version of Outlook (not the “Web Access” version).Īlso note that certain Outlook Administrators may decide to disable this feature, so it is possible that it may not be an option within your organization. Outlook Recall will only work if you and the recipients are:īoth on Office 365 and within the same organization.īoth using Microsoft Exchange and are within the same organization. Important Limitations on the Outlook Recall Feature: The Outlook “ Recall” feature allows you to either delete the Email entirely from the recipients inboxes, or resend it with a corrected version that contains updated information. Luckily, if you work in an office that uses Microsoft Outlook (which is by far the most widely used corporate Email system), you have the ability to “ Recall” an Email message. This issue can be even more significant (and potentially embarrassing) if you send the message out to a large number of people, or even to a large distribution list. Or maybe you sent out something when you were upset that you know realize isn’t appropriate and contains some wordings you now regret.
Perhaps you forgot to include an attachment, and want to retract the message, and send a replacement message that has the necessary attachment. You may have hit “ Reply All” when you didn’t intend to, and now want to remove those Emails from all the extra people’s Inboxes. We send out an Email, only to realize just after you hit “Send” that it contains incorrect information or perhaps something that on second thought you now regret putting in the Email. If the recipient opens the original e-mail first then the recall will fail.It eventually happens to the best of us.If the recipient opens the recall message first, the original message will be deleted.If the recipient has defined a rule stating that both e-mails should be stored in the same folder, then it depends which e-mail is opened first. Scenario 4: An inbox rule moves both the original e-mail and the recall e-mail to a different folder. If the recipient has defined a rule, which means that the original e-mail and the recall e-mail will be stored in different folders, the recall will fail.Scenario 3: An inbox rule moves the original e-mail to another folder. If the recipient opens the original e-mail first, the recall will be unsuccessful.If the recipient opens the message about the recall first, the original message will be deleted, meaning the recall was a success.Whether the recall is successful or not depends on which e-mail is opened first: If the recipient has not enabled the “Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls” feature, both the original message and the message about the recall will be stored in the recipient’s inbox. Scenario 2: The “Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls” feature is disabled. However, the recipient will be informed that you attempted to recall the message. If the message is marked as read when the recall message arrives, the recall attempt will fail and the message will remain in the recipient’s inbox.The recipient is then informed that you have recalled the original message. If the recipient has not yet read the original message, it will be replaced by the recall message.Whether the recall works or not depends on whether the mail has been read.
If the recipient has the “Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls” feature enabled, both the original message and the message to recall the e-mail will be stored in the recipient’s inbox. Scenario 1: The “Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls” feature is enabled (as default). The following scenarios are possible according to Microsoft.
Whether an already-sent e-mail can be replaced by a new message depends not only on the requirements listed above, but also on the recipient’s Outlook settings.