You may have pressed the send mail button on Microsoft Outlook by mistake at some point, and sorely regret it. So, you use the recall message option in Outlook but are not sure if the recall actually worked.
In this article, I will tell you how to know your email message is successfully recalled and the conditions behind a successful recall.
Follow along.
How to Find Out if my Email was Recalled in Outlook Desktop
You can set Outlook to notify you when an email recall is successful. That way you will know if you have successfully recalled a message. Navigate to your sent emails and click on the mail you recalled. Upon a successful recall, you will get a message stating that it was a success.
Enable the success or failure notification to know if your original message is successfully recalled. Additionally, Outlook will show a message in front of the recalled email title.
Here are the steps to know if a recall was successful in Outlook Desktop:
- Open the Sent Mail.
- Click twice on the email.
- Tap on the Message option and select Actions.
- Select Recall This Message.
- Choose between Delete unread copies of this message OR Delete unread copies and replace with a new message.
- Tick the box labeled Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient.
- Press OK.
Then, after you recall the message, you will be notified if it was successfully recalled.
You can also check the status of a recalled email, which will let you know if the sent message in Outlook has been recalled or replaced. In that case, go to Sent Mail and click on the Tracking button. You can view the current status of the recalled mail here. This is how you can know if your recall worked. 
But what if you access your email account in the Outlook web app? In that case, the next section will surely help you.
Are you facing a bug where Outlook does not change the email status as read? Read our article where we try to solve this issue.
How do I know if my Email Message was Recalled in Outlook 365?
You cannot use the recall feature in Outlook 365 or Outlook on the web. There is no option present that can help you to bring back your emails. You can delete the emails from the sent list but you won’t be able to recall or replace a message from the recipients’ inboxes.
However, you can set yourself a tiny window to allow you to revert back an email that is being sent in the web version of Outlook. During this time if you click the undo button, the email will not be sent to the other user.
Here is the undo button in action.
Here is how to do it.
Follow the steps to set an undo button in Outlook 365/web app:
- Click the gear icon next to your username and select View all Outlook settings.
- Now navigate to Mail > Compose and reply.
- Set a time limit to 10s from the Undo sent option.
Now after sending a mail, you will see the undo button. Click on it and the email will not be delivered to the recipient.
Read our great guide on how to delete confirmation message on Outlook and declutter your inbox.
Conditions to Recall Messages using Outlook
A lot of times, the recall may fail. There are different conditions behind your failed recall. If any of those criteria aren’t fulfilled, your message won’t be deleted or replaced by another message. If your recipient opens and reads the email, you cannot recall it
Before recalling an email, you should know the conditions unless you don’t want to mess up again.
Here are the conditions for a successful email recall:
- Send the email to someone within your organization.
- Your organization is using Microsoft Exchange Email Account.
- The recipient hasn’t read the original message.
- The sender and receiver both are using Outlook applications for Windows. Outlook for Mac does not support this feature. A third party mail application also is not supported.
- Recalling emails sent to Gmail and Yahoo mail accounts are also not supported.
- Both the sender and the recipient have to have a Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange Email Account.
- The email is sent directly to the inbox. If a filtering system exist that moves it to another folder, the recall won’t work.
- Not using Outlook Web app.
- The email hasn’t moved from the inbox.
- Azure Information Protection doesn’t protect your email.
If these conditions are fulfilled and given that the receiver doesn’t open the message, the recall process will be successful. Otherwise, the recall will fail and Outlook will not delete from the recipient side.
You can add a touch of your personality to your email using signatures. Read our guide on how to add signatures in Outlook and stand out from your colleagues.
What Happens if the Condition doesn’t Meet?
Your sent email cannot be recalled from the receiver’s mailbox if the conditions don’t meet. A Message Recall Failure notification will show in front of the subject. In the picture below, you can see the failure message in front of the email title.
An email titled Recall will go to the recipient’s inbox, and the original email won’t get deleted. If you try multiple times, one additional email will go to the receiver each time. The picture below shows an example of a failed recall attempt from the recipient’s mailbox.
You don’t have the ability to recall if you are using an IMAP or POP3 account. These are used by popular email clients such as Gmail and Yahoo mail.
Check the account type before using the recall option.
Here is the process to check account type in Outlook:
- Open Outlook.
- Press on File from the top left.
- Select Account Settings.
- Check the account type in the Email section.
Once you confirm that you are running a Microsoft Exchange account, you can be certain that you can recall your message to someone in Outlook, given that the message hasn’t been read.
Otherwise, you can’t recall a message or replace it with a new message.
Do you want to automate email forwarding in Outlook? Check our guide to make Outlook do this repetitive task instead of yourself.
How to Recall an Email in Outlook
Recalling a sent message in Microsoft Outlook allows the user to delete a sent email or replace the sent email with a new one. It gives the chance to correct the mistake of sending an email without any file, information, or an incorrect recipient.
Using the Outlook recall feature can be life-saving sometimes. But remember, you can only recall on the Outlook Desktop App.
Attempting to recall an email in Microsoft Outlook will allow delete a sent email and send a replacement message. You can choose to either delete the message and replace it, or just delete it from the recipient’s inbox.
Here are the steps to recall an email in Outlook:
- Open Outlook.
- Go to the Sent Mail from the left folder pane.
- Double-click on the email you want to recall.
- Select the Message tab from the top.
- Tap on Actions.
- Press on Recall This Message.
- Choose Delete or Replace with a new email.
Now, type a new replacement message and send it. It will replace your old email with the new one. You can use this to send a message explaining why you recalled your message in the first place on the second email.
When your recipient opens the recalled message, they will be cleared of any confusion by reading the message.
We also have a separate article on how to recall an email in Outlook. That is recommended to read if you want some additional information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Outlook notify you when you recall an email?
Outlook will send you a message when a recall is successful. Even when the recall is unsuccessful, you will be altered of this. In that case, the recipient also receives a message about this.
How long after sending an email can you recall it on Outlook?
You can recall an email after a maximum of 120 minutes in Outlook. That gives you plenty of time to bring back an email after you have sent it to the wrong address or your mail contains some missing information.
Can someone see if you tried to recall an email?
There will be no trace of the original email if your recall is successful.
Why does message Recall fail in Outlook?
Message recall fails if the message is already opened by the receiver, moved or deleted from the recipient’s mailbox, You will also not get a message recall if you use a different account other than Microsoft Exchange.
How do you track recall status?
To track recall status in Outlook, click on Sent Items and double click on the email that you have recalled. From the opened window, click on Tracking. Here you can see the status of your recalled email.
A Final Thought
Email recall is a savior if you use it perfectly. Following the appropriate technique can save you from unwanted regret before your recipient opens the email.
There is no guarantee the recipient won’t get your email. Most of the time, it can fail if you don’t follow the proper approach.
In this article, I’ve provided the steps to recall and the valid conditions to use them. After reading this article, I hope you will know when you recalled an email in Outlook successfully.
That’s all for today.
Cheers!
