In Outlook, I have created a draft email but somehow I have deleted it. Is there anyway to recover it?

Dear Martin Sims

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Community. I understand you are having a problem recovering a deleted draft email in Outlook. I am happy to assist you. Please kindly try these following steps   

1] Check Outlook Drafts Folder  

The first thing to fix the issue is thoroughly checking your Drafts folder in Outlook. If there are certain emails you can’t see in the Drafts folder, you can manually search for them.  

To do that, click on the Drafts folder and then enter the keywords for your mail in the Outlook search box. You can evoke the search bar using the F3 key. See if you are able to find the unsent emails in Drafts or not.  

If you don’t see emails in your Drafts folder, you can use the next fix to resolve the issue.  

2] Make sure the Auto-save option for Drafts is enabled  

Your Outlook settings for draft emails might be incorrectly configured which is why your drafts are not being saved. Hence, if the scenario is applicable, you can check your Outlook settings and make sure draft message options are correctly set. Here are the steps to do that:  

• First, click on the File menu in Outlook and then select Options.  
• In the Outlook Options window, go to the Mail tab from the left-side pane.  
• Next, scroll down to the Save messages section.  
• After that, make sure that the Automatically save items that have not been sent after this many minutes option is checked.  
• Now, set up the duration after which the unsent items will be automatically saved in Draft. You can increase or decrease it as per your requirements.  
• Also, ensure that the Save to this folder option is set to Drafts.  
• Once you are done making the changes, press the OK button to save settings.  

You can now try drafting emails and see if the messages are being saved or not.  

3] Quickly use the Undo feature to recover an accidentally deleted draft  

Did you accidentally delete a draft just some time ago? If so, you can recover your draft by pressing the Undo option. You can click on the Undo button from the top of the menubar present at the top-left corner, or simply press the CTRL+Z hotkey to do the same. You will get the deleted draft back in the Drafts folder.  

4] Check your Deleted Items folder  

In case you are unable to find some old drafts in the Drafts folder, you might have deleted them by mistake. So, if the scenario is applicable, all you have to do is go to the Deleted Items folder in the left-side pane and check your accidentally deleted drafts there.  

If you find your unsent items or drafts in the Deleted Items folder, you can move them back to the Drafts folder or simply complete the emails and send them right away.  

To move the deleted drafts to the Drafts folder, select the email and right-click on it. From the appeared context menu, choose the Move > Other Folder option. After that, select the Drafts folder and press the OK button. This way you can recover accidentally deleted drafts.  

5] Disable Use Cached Exchange Mode  

If the issue remains the same, you can try turning off Use Cached Exchange Mode for your account in Outlook. This workaround has been proven to be effective for some users. So, you can also do the same and see if it helps.  

• First, open Outlook and click on the File menu.  
• Now, click on the Info option and then choose the Account Settings > Account Settings option.  
• Next, select your active account and then press the Change button.  
• In the appeared window, disable the checkbox associated with the Use Cached Exchange Mode to download email to an Outlook data file option.  
• After that, press the Done button and restart your Outlook app to let the changes take effect.  
• Once the Outlook app is restarted, check if Drafts are being saved or not.  

6] Try Outlook Web  

You can try using the Outlook web app to see if you can compose drafts and if your draft emails are being saved. Create your drafts on Outlook web and try accessing them on the Outlook desktop app.  

7] Repair the Outlook profile  

If the above solutions didn’t work for you, it is most likely that your Outlook profile is corrupted which is why the app and its features are not behaving correctly. So, in that case, you can repair your Outlook profile. To do that, you can use the Outlook Inbox Repair Tool (ScanPST.exe) that comes with Outlook. You can follow the below steps to use this tool:  

First, open the File Explorer using Win+E and then locate the ScanPST.exe file inside the directory where Outlook is installed. You are most likely to find this file at one of the below locations:  

First, open File Explorer by pressing Win+E and go to one of the below locations depending upon the Office version you are using:  

• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\  
• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16  

Now, locate the ScanPST.exe file and double-click on it to run the tool. After that, select the source PST file and press the Start button. Next, check the Make backup of scanned file before repairing option and click on the Repair button. Once done, restart Outlook and check if the issue is resolved.  

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".   

Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.