Outlook Recovery: How to Recover Deleted Folder in Outlook 2016/2013/2010/2007
Last Updated on April 24, 2023 by Ian McEwan
Microsoft Outlook is a personal email management program that is part of the Microsoft Office suite. Besides being used as an email-management application, Microsoft Outlook supports other additional features such as a calendar, journal, note-taking, contacts management, and task management. The program can be used by a single person to communicate with another person, or it can be used by a company or organization for communication across a server. Developers have created servers that allow people to back up all their emails, contacts, and calendars over the Microsoft Outlook application.
Outlook folders can be deleted accidentally when we are moving them from one location to another or when one is sorting and organizing the folders. However, you should not worry when a critical folder is deleted accidentally because the tips below explain in detail how to recover deleted folders in Outlook.
How The Safety Net Of Microsoft Outlook Works When You Delete/Permanently Delete A Folder In Outlook
For those who just delete the folder: Look at your email folder list, there is a “Deleted Items” or “Trash”. That is where a deleted item will be moved to if you delete something in Outlook.
In fact, you can keep the deleted emails or folders there as long as you can, except you have set up the automatic delete of Outlook after a certain amount of days.
For those who permanently (shift+delete) or empty the emails in the Deleted Items folder, and also have an Exchange account without changing the default Office 365 settings, the deleted Outlook item can still be recovered from the Exchange server for 14 days.
However, not all Outlook users have access to Exchange or have an account that supports recovering deleted folders in Outlook. (Especially those that have a “Trash” folder instead of a “Deleted Items” folder.)
While the situation varies from case to case, you can try the methods below one by one until you get your deleted Outlook items back.
Method 1- Recovering From the Trash/Deleted Items
The technique outlined below only applies when the folder is simply deleted, but the Trash/Deleted Items folder is not emptied.
- In Microsoft Outlook, go to the folder with our emails and click on the Trash/ Deleted Items folder.
- Identify the deleted folder that you want to recover. If there are many folders here and the folder you want to recover cannot be located, search for its name from the search section.
- Once the folder has been identified, right-click on it and select the Move option from the available options.
- Once the move option has been selected, the folder will be moved back to the inbox folder.
Method 2- Recovering From The Server
The second method can be applied to recover a folder that was deleted permanently from Outlook. Moreover, this method can be used to retrieve a folder that was emptied from the Deleted Items folder, but not the Trash folder.
- In Microsoft Outlook, navigate to the email folder list and click on the Deleted Items section.
- From the home tab on the menu bar, click on the Recover Deleted Items From Server option.
- Identify the folder that you want to recover from the items, tick Restore Selected Items and click OK.
If you cannot see the intended folder in the list of folders, which means your Outlook account may not support recovering permanently deleted folders in Outlook.
Method 3- Recovering Using Third-Party Software
When Method 1 and Method 2 fail, third-party software can come in handy to help with the recovery process. Two third-party software can be used to recover Deleted Folder in Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007.
Recovering Using Aiseesoft Outlook PST Repair Tool
The program can be used to restore and retrieve Outlook folders, emails, and attachments that were deleted accidentally in their original status. The striking advantage of this program is that it retrieves the deleted folder together with all its subfolders and attributes such as calendar items and contacts.
Aiseesoft Data Recovery also restores the deleted folder without affecting the information and data that was contained in it. On top of that, the program repairs Outlook files that have been damaged.
More about Aiseesoft Data Recovery
- Recover all deleted/lost/corrupted email attachments in Outlook: Documents, photos, videos, audio, etc.
- Handle the problems of lost data easily: Accidentally Delete, Formatted Drive, Hard Disk Damage, System Crashed, Virus Attack, System Interrupts, Unexpected Power off, and other improper operations.
- Aiseesoft Data Recovery is available to 10/8.1/8/Vista/XP and the file systems, like NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, EXT, etc.
- Support all Outlook versions (Outlook 2016/2013/2010/2007 and earlier).
Use the application as explained below
– Download the program here and install it.
– After the installation has been completed, open the program.
– Select Email and specify the location where you want to save the restored items, then click on the appropriate Scan procedure.
– Once the scanning process ends, a report is displayed showing all the recovered folders and items. Check for the folder you wanted to restore from the recovered items.
Recovering Using Easus Data Recovery Program
The Easus Data Recovery Program can also be used to retrieve the deleted Outlook folder as follows:
– Download the program from the Easus Data Recovery Program official page and install it.
– Open the application and select the location that used to contain the deleted Outlook folder.
– Click on Scan.
– After the scanning has been completed, search for the Outlook folder from the Deleted Files option. If there are many folders in this section, a quick Search will help quicken the process.
– Once the deleted folder has been identified, retrieve it back by clicking on Recover and save it in a safe location on your computer.
In conclusion, understanding how to recover a deleted folder in Microsoft Outlook is very critical because it can help one to recover essential files, emails, contacts or folders that could have been deleted accidentally.