How to Restore Deleted Emails From Exchange Server? 5 Ways
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What Happens When Email Is Deleted from Exchange Server?
Exchange didn’t instantly remove your deleted mail “Deleted Email” from your mailbox. It goes through four stages! Email also sits & determines which recovery method will work when you want to recover deleted emails from Exchange Server.
- Deleted Items: Deleted emails normally move to Deleted Items folder in mailbox. It’s fully visible to users & can be restore by dragging it back into original folder.
- Recoverable Items: By any chance, if you clean Deleted Items folder, then it moves to hidden system folder known as “Recoverable Items.” It is not visible as Deleted Items folder but can be restored by Outlook “Recover Deleted Items.” Users can also choose Exchange Admin Center to get back deleted emails in Exchange Server.
- Deletions: In Recoverable Items folder, email save in Deletions subfolder. This is what “Recover Deleted Items” actually searches.
- Purges: If your deleted from Deletions subfolder too, then it moves to Purges Subfolder. Users cannot see emails via Outlook recovery tool. Nevertheless, emails still exist in deleted item until retention period. In this situation, users can use PowerShell recovery to get back emails.
- Hold/Retention: If your mailbox had litigation hold or in-place hold applied, then you can recover emails within 14-30 day windows.
Difference Between Exchange Server vs Exchange Online
| Exchange Server | Exchange Online |
|---|---|
| Installed & managed by own servers | Hosted by Microsoft |
| Requires own hardware | No server hardware required |
| Disconnected mailbox | Soft-deleted (< 30 days) & hard-deleted (permanent) |
| Managed by IT team | Managed by Microsoft |
| Installed & updated by your team | Automatically managed by Microsoft |
| Need Server licenses + infrastructure + maintenance costs | Subscription-based |
| Require proper external configuration | Access from anywhere with internet |
| Organization manages security infrastructure | Get built-in security from Microsoft |
| Better control & customization | Standardized/cloud-based |
| Hybrid recovery not possible | New-MailboxRestoreRequest -RemoteRestoreType DisconnectedMailbox restores on-prem mailbox into Exchange Online |
The methods mentioned below use on-premises Exchange Server. If you have Exchange Online, then same deletion method can be used to recover emails from Exchange Online. Nevertheless, whole mailbox recovery uses Undo-SoftDeletedMailbox.
5 Practical Ways: Recover Deleted Emails from Exchange Server
Let’s checkout methods to recover deleted emails from Exchange Server. Users can choose many methods that fit their situation to recover deleted emails from Exchange Server.
Method 1: Recover Emails From Deleted Items
Users just need to check Deleted Items folders to get back deleted emails from Exchange Server mailbox.
- Open Outlook or Outlook.com/OWA.
- Go to Deleted Items folder.
- Locate email.
- Click Recover button.
- Open Inbox folder & access deleted emails.
Method 2: Recover Permanently Deleted Emails from Recoverable Items
If you email are removed from Deleted Items, then you can still get back your emails in your mailbox. The deleted item retention period is default 14 days. For admins, it is up to 30 days.
- Open classic Outlook.
- Go to Deleted Items folder.
- Above the Home section, you find “Recover items recently from this folder.”
- After that, click “Restore selected folder”
- Tap ok to recover deleted items in your Exchange Mailbox.
Method 3: Restore Deleted Emails via Exchange PowerShell
If users emails are no longer available in Deleted Items, then you can still recover them. Microsoft provides Get-recoverableItems & Restore-RecoverableItem cmdlets. The administrator requires appropriate Mailbox Import Export role.
- Open PowerShell.
- Search for
Get-RecoverableItems -Identity [email protected] -SubjectContains "Email Subject" -FilterItemType IPM.Note -FilterStartTime "2/1/2026 12:00:00 AM" -FilterEndTime "2/5/2026 11:59:59 PM" - Check Items to recover.
- Restore email
“Restore-RecoverableItems -Identity [email protected] -SubjectContains "Email Subject" -FilterItemType IPM.Note -FilterStartTime "2/1/2026 12:00:00 AM" -FilterEndTime "2/5/2026 11:59:59 PM"”
If users are still confuse, then they can refer to Official Microsoft Learn Guide.
Method 4: Recover Deleted Emails from Exchange Backup
If retention period has fully expired, then you can still recover deleted emails from Exchange Server. But before you begin, know that your organization still runs regular Exchange database backups. An admin can restore mailbox database before email was deleted. If you have regular database backups, then you can get back emails & extract primary items.
In mailbox restore, users need to use “New-MailboxRestoreRequest” to restore mailbox content. Users don’t need Active Directory account to recover Exchange Server mailbox.
Method 5: Software Method to Restore Deleted Emails From Exchange Server
If your deleted emails are no longer available via normal Outlook recovery option, then users can use BitRecover Cloud Backup & Restore Wizard to backup & restore Exchange Server mailbox data. Users don’t need to learn any coding to operate application. This tool provides easy-to-use interface. Install software today! Effortlessly make backup & restore process much easier and faster to recover deleted emails from Exchange Server.
Steps to Recover Deleted Emails from Exchange Server
- Download software, and choose Exchange Server from the list.
- Enter the login details of your account and hit the Login button.
- All the folders and subfolders will appear and check the required data.
- Select Office 365 as source from the saving options.
- Click on the Filter Options tab, and use advanced filters.
- Login with correct credentials & start migrating Exchange Server mailboxes to Office 365.
- Open Outlook or your Office 365 account to verify emails.
How to Recover Deleted Exchange Server Mailbox?
Restoring deleted mailbox is another task from recovering deleted emails. Users need to restore entire mailbox that was removed. By default Exchange retains deleted mailboxes for 30 days. Follow some steps to get back deleted email.
- Open Exchange Admin Center & check Recipients & mailbox.
- After that, select menu & connect to mailbox.
- Choose disconnected mailbox.
- Once done, choose Connect.
- Link it to existing user account.
- Create new one, if original AD account was deleted.
Commonly Asked Questions
How to Change Retention Period of Deleted Emails In Exchange Server?
Whenever a user deletes any item, it is moved to recoverable items folder or stays there for 14 to 30 days, depending on version of Exchange Server, but do you know that it can be configure & extend from the Exchange admin center (EAC)? So, let’s have a look at the steps to change the retention period.
Steps to Change Retention Period:
- First, you have to navigate to Exchange Admin Centre.
- At the bottom of the left pane, click on Server.
- Select the database used by the Exchange Server and click on the Edit button.
- Finally, edit Keep deleted mailbox for (days) under the limit section.
- Choose the specific time period according to your needs and click on the Save button.
How to Get Recovery Permission For Admin Account?
To assign recovery permission follow the given steps below:
- Navigate to EAC and login to your account
- Find Permissions option and go to Admin Roles.
- To start a new role group dialogue click on the New button
- Under Role Section, click on Add button.
- Choose mailbox import and export option; you have to double-click on it.
- Now move to Members section & click on Add button
- To get the permission, double-click on each of the administration
- Click on the Save button.
Difference Between Recoverable Items & Deleted Mailbox
Recoverable Items save individual deleted messages in existing mailbox. A deleted mailbox is entire mailbox itself. It is disconnect from user account. If you want to recover, then you need to reconnect to users, not restore individual items.
Last Thoughts
This blog provide effective 5 solution to recover or restore deleted emails from Exchange Server. Users get to know which method is effective & Deleted Items, Recoverable Items, or fully purged mailbox; they can recover their emails when they are deleted from Exchange Server. If you are worried about losing important emails, then try first easy method. Recovering emails via PowerShell requires technical knowledge of Microsoft Exchange settings. I hope this blog helps you to know how to easily recover emails or mailboxes from Exchange Server.
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