Recovering Deleted Emails with Exchange Admin Center

Accidentally deleting emails can result in substantial disruptions and the loss of critical information. Fortunately, Exchange Admin Center (EAC) provides powerful tools for recovering deleted emails from Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online. This post will walk you through the processes for recovering deleted emails using the Exchange Admin Center.

Understanding Email Deletion Stages

In Exchange Online, email destruction happens in stages:

Deleted Items Folder: When a user deletes an email, it first moves to the Deleted Items folder.
Recoverable Items Folder: If an email is deleted from the Deleted Items folder, it goes to the Recoverable Items folder, also known as the “Dumpster.”
Permanent Deletion: After the retention period, emails in the Recoverable Items folder are permanently deleted.

Use EAC for recovering deleted messages

In the EAC, go to Recipients > Mailboxes.
Select the mailbox from which you wish to recover deleted messages.
Under Others > Recover deleted items, click the Recover deleted items option.
Use the provided filters to find the messages you want to recover, then choose Apply filter.
Choose the messages you want to recover and then click Recover Deleted Items.

Recover emails from the Deleted Items folder

Sign in to Outlook over the web.
On the left folder pane, locate and click on the Deleted Items folder.
Locate the message you wish to restore and right-click it. To recover a deleted item, select Restore or Move from the popup that appears.
Now, the deleted email should be returned to your Inbox.

But what if a previously deleted email is no longer in the Deleted Items folder? Then you can look for that email in the Recoverable Items folder. You can go there by clicking the Recover deleted items from this folder button.

conclusion

Using the Exchange Admin Center and PowerShell, you may easily recover deleted emails from Exchange Online. Administrators can recover lost emails quickly and reduce data loss by following the methods indicated in this tutorial. Implementing best practices for email management will improve data security and provide easy recovery when necessary.