Office 365 (Outlook Client) - Recall an Email Message that You Sent

If you and your recipients are all on Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 and in the same organization, you can recall or replace an email message that you sent. This will NOT work for messages sent outside of Parkland. At this time, the recall functionality only appears to be available in the installed version of Outlook, not Outlook on the web.

1. Select the Sent Items folder.

2. Select or double-click the message so it opens in another window.

3. Select File > Info.

4. Select Resend or Recall > Recall This Message and then select one of the two options:

  • Select Delete unread copies of this message to recall the sent message.
  • Select Delete unread copies and replace with a new message to replace the sent message with a new message.

NOTE: The wording in the bullet points above still reflects the old Microsoft message recall behavior. Beginning in March 2023, even messages that have already been read can still be recalled.

5. Select the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient check box.

Recall Message Prompt

6. Select OK.

If you selected Delete unread copies and replace with a new message, the original message opens for editing. When you select Send, the original email message will be deleted from the recipient’s mailbox and replaced with the newly edited one.

7. You will receive a "Message Recall Report" in your inbox from Office365Reports@microsoft.com. 


Message Recall Report


8. Click View Message Recall Report

•    If prompted, login with your email address and password.
•    The recall status might show "Pending" for up to several minutes. The more recipients there are, the longer it can take. Microsoft will continue trying to recall for up to 24 hours.
•    Access to this report will expire after 7 days.

9. The message recall report will open to a status page listing the names of the recipients and the recall details. In the sample report below, there were two different status details depending on whether the recipient had already read the message prior to the recall, or not. 

  • The message was successfully recalled but was read by the recipient
  • Message successfully recalled

Message Recall Status Report


For the most current information on recalling or replacing messages in Outlook, please see the following Microsoft support article: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Recall-or-replace-an-email-message-that-you-sent-35027F88-D655-4554-B4F8-6C0729A723A0.


Tech Service Desk

Room A184, 217-353-3333

Fall/Spring: 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. M-Th. / 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Fridays

Summer: 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. M-Th

Submit an IT Help Ticket via services.parkland.edu





Keywords:retract mail rescind resend replace   Doc ID:54672
Owner:Sara S.Group:Parkland College
Created:2015-08-04 14:53 CDTUpdated:2023-03-24 13:00 CDT
Sites:Parkland College
Feedback:  18   52