How to recall an email in Outlook

We've all felt the fear of sending an email too early, without the proper attachment, or to the completely wrong person, and then having to quickly craft an anxious email with a creative excuse — or simply succumb to embarrassment. 

Microsoft Outlook is one of the few email platforms that allow you to recall emails. With this feature, you won't have to feel as fearful of your Monday brain and can move on with your week mistake-free.

It's important to address a few feature requirements and caveats. First, for the recall and resend feature to work:

• Both you and your recipient must have Microsoft Outlook email addresses.
• The email can only be recalled if it was not read or opened by the recipient.
• The permanent recall feature is only available on a PC. Mac users will have to resort to the Undo toggle, which gives you up to a 10-second grace period to edit or rescind an email after sending it. I'll explain how to do that later in the article. 

With that said, keeping in mind when you can use it, it's a great feature. 

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How to recall an email in Outlook

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If you wanted to compose a new message, write your new copy and hit Enter when prompted. 

A note about recall settings

Recalls are not guaranteed. A recall could fail depending on your recipient's settings in Outlook. For example, if the recipient has the “Automatically process requests and responses to meeting requests and polls” box checked under their tracking settings, the recipient will be informed that you, the sender, deleted a message from their inbox.  

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How to turn on the Undo feature on Mac

As I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, there is no way to recall and replace emails on a Mac. However, you can enable an undo feature that gives you 10-second grace period to unsend an email should you catch any mistakes. 

Here's how.

1. Go to Settings

At the top of your mailbox, go to the Settings icon (gear) and then select the “View all Outlook Settings” option. 

2. Select the “Compose and reply” option

Once you see the menu of settings options, select the Compose and reply tab. Scroll to find the Undo send option.

3. Set your grace period and save

Under the Undo send tab, move the notch on the line to adjust how much time you want to be able to undo a message. Then press Save. If you find yourself occasionally making typos or mistakes, then setting the meter to the maximum (10 seconds) is best.  

4. Select Undo

As a test, you can send an email to a friend or to yourself to get a sense of how long the grace period actually lasts. If you don't want the message to go through, select Undo and the email will reappear as an unsent draft.

FAQ

How long do you have to recall an email after you send it?

You can recall a message up until the recipient has read it, so the sooner the better.

Does the recipient know if an email is recalled?

That depends on their settings. It's possible the recipient could get a notification that something from their inbox has been deleted.

Can you recall an Outlook email on a Mac? 

Unfortunately, no. As shown in the images above, you can, however, enable the Undo send option by going to Settings > View all Outlook Settings > Compose and reply > Undo Send > Set the seconds you have to undo > Save.