If you've ever received an email and thought I'll go back to that later only to struggle to find it, you are not alone. Locating important emails in Microsoft Outlook can be frustrating and time-consuming.
This guide is based on the latest version of Microsoft Outlook, which is sometimes called "New Experience". Some of the suggestions here also apply to the legacy desktop version of Outlook and to the Outlook mobile version, but we won't go into the differences in detail.
Follow these steps to locate missing emails in Microsoft Outlook that you are sure have been delivered. If none of these steps find your email, there is a good chance that it's been deleted a while back and is now irrecoverable (unless you use a third-party backup solution) or that it might be being held in quarantine outside of your mailbox.
When emails seem to have vanished, the search function in Microsoft Outlook can be a lifesaver. Start by typing a keyword, the sender's name, or a specific phrase from the email you’re looking for into the search bar at the top of your inbox and hit Enter on your keyboard or the magnifying glass on the right of the search bar. Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases.
When you start to type, you'll notice that filter options appear below. Using the tabs, you can narrow your search results to email, attached files, teams, or specific people. Below the tabs are AI suggestions for further filtering your search. Generally, we don't find these to be too helpful, and we prefer to do the full search and scan through the results produced.
If you’re still unable to locate the email, click on the three lines at the far right side of the search bar to apply additional filters such as date range, attachment presence, or specific folders. This method helps narrow down the search and increases the chances of locating the missing email.
If you don't see the "Focused" and "Other" options at the top of your email selection pane, then you do not have this feature turned on, and this section isn't going to help you.
Outlook’s Focused Inbox feature divides your inbox into 'Focused' and 'Other' tabs to help you prioritise your most important emails. However, this can sometimes cause emails to be overlooked.
If you have Focused Inbox turned on, make sure to regularly check the 'Other' tab to see if any important messages have been sorted incorrectly. You can move emails from 'Other' to 'Focused' by right-clicking on the email and selecting 'Move to Focused' to ensure future emails from that sender appear in your main inbox.
If your organisation uses a third-party backup solution to back up your Microsoft 365 account, then any accidentally deleted emails may still be recoverable from your backup. Contact your IT department to ask them for assistance.
Microsoft has a service that sits outside of your mailbox called quarantine. When its security filters detect a highly suspicious email, it will hold it in quarantine rather than allow it through to your mailbox. Sometimes, Microsoft's systems will even recall messages to your quarantine after they've been delivered if the email has been subsequently identified as dangerous after being delivered to other people.
You will normally receive an email from quarantine@messaging.microsoft.com notifying you that you have quarantined emails.
This email is often misinterpreted by recipients as being suspicious, and with good reason. It contains links that you are asked to follow to release your message.
Rather than clicking the links, we recommend erring on the side of caution and heading to security.microsoft.com in your browser. This will take you to your Microsoft security home.
Log in, and locate Email & collaboration in the left-hand menu and then select Review. Then click the tile on the right with the icon of a safe on it.
You'll be presented with a list of all your quarantined emails. If you see the message you are looking for, you are confident that it's safe to release, and you expect more email from this sender, we recommend clicking on the email to open a flyout from the right-hand side. Click on the three dots as shown in the image below and select Allow Sender.
If you don't expect future email from the sender, you can simply check the box to the left of the email and click the tick at the top to release the message back to your mailbox.
If none of these steps have located your email, then sadly, it is probably gone for good. If you would like to learn about how we protect customer data with cloud backup included in our all-in-one IT support, then get in touch with us today.