Outlook Message Recall

Today I'm going to cover how Message Recall works in Outlook. This is only of interest to you if you have an Exchange server mailbox since this feature requires Microsoft Exchange mail server running in the background in order to work. Most home and personal accounts do not use Exchange.

Message recall is an excellent tool if you've sent an email in error. Perhaps you've made a terrible spelling error or forgot to attach an important document. Email is a great way to share communications, schedule meetings and events, and even share documents.

Side note: I do not recommend emailing documents to your co-workers. If you're on the same network, rather than clutter up their mailbox and yours with needless attachments, you should instead place the document in a folder in a network location that everyone can access and simply email a hyperlink to it.

Back to recalling a message! Sometimes your day is so busy and rushed, you may fail to include pertinent information, a critical document, or misspell words which comes across as very unprofessional. What if you sent the email to the wrong person? It's only after you hit the SEND button that you realize your mistake!

How do you fix this? You want to recall the original message and send another with the correct information included and/or to the correct intended recipient. For anyone who hasn't opened the email yet, you can perform a little bit of trickery and pull the email out of their Inbox quietly and replace it.

What steps does it take to do this? Read the following:

1. In Mail, in the Navigation Pane, click Sent Items.
2. Open (double-click, don't simply highlight) the message you want to recall or replace.
3. On the Actions menu, click Recall This Message.
4. Click Delete unread copies and replace with a new message.

Note If you are sending the message to a large number of people, you may want to consider clearing the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient check box.

5. Click OK, and then type a new message and include the attachment.
6. Click Send. 

What if you don't see Recall This Message on the Actions menu? Make sure you are in the Sent Items folder. The command will also not appear if you are using a POP3, IMAP, or HTTP e-mail account, including MSN Hotmail. Remember, Recall This Message only works if you have an Exchange mailbox.

In some scenarios, you simply wish to Recall This Message and choose Delete Unread Copies of This Message. Say you sent out an invitation to a party for your co-workers, but you chose the wrong date. Simply recall and delete the message quickly.

Here's your next big question: Will my recall be successful?

Whether or not your recall works will depend on several factors. The settings your recipient has configured in Outlook, whether or not you requested a response to notify you whether or not the recall failed, and the time it takes for your message and even your recall to reach the recipient.

Here are some different situations you may run across:

You send an email. You perform the steps to recall and replace it. In your recipient's copy of Outlook, they have selected Process Requests and Responses Upon Arrival in Tracking Options.
What happens next is that both the original email and the recall request arrive in their Inbox. Assuming that the original email has not been read, your original email is deleted and your recipient is notified that you deleted the message from their Inbox.
NOTE: If your original message is marked as read, then when the recall message is processed the recipient is informed that you wish to recall the message. However the message remains in your recipient's Outlook Inbox. Viewing the email in the Reading Pane does not constitute being read.

You send an email. You perform the steps to recall and replace it. Your recpient does NOT have Process Requests and Responses Upon Arrival selected in Tracking Options. Your recipient receives both the original email and the recall. One of two scenarios happens for your recipient:

• If your recipient opens and reads your recall message first then the original email is deleted. The recipient is informed that you deleted the email from their mailbox.
• If your recipient opens and reads your email first, the recall fails. Both the email and the recall remain in their mailbox and are available to them. Again, viewing the email in the Reading Pane does not constitute being read.

You send an email. You perform the steps to recall and replace it. Your recipient has moved your email to another folder, either by a rule or manually by dragging and dropping. The recall message remains in the Inbox, or is moved to another folder. If the recall message and the original email exist in separate folders, the recall attempt fails. This happens no matter what settings are configured in Outlook. This leaves both the original message and the recall available to the recipient.

You send an email. You perform the steps to recall and replace it. Your recipient has either manually moved both emails to the same folder, or used a rule to move both messages to the same folder (not in the Inbox). This will cause Outlook to behave as though it's NOT set to Process Requests and Responses upon Arrival. One of two scenarios happens for your recipient:

• If your recipient opens and reads your recall message first then the original email is deleted. The recipient is informed that you deleted the email from their mailbox.
• If your recipient opens and reads your email first, the recall fails. Both the email and the recall remain in their mailbox and are available to them. Again, viewing the email in the Reading Pane does not constitute being read.

If your recipient reads the mail and then marks it as unread, Outlook will treat the email as though it has never been read.

You send an email to a Public Folder on Exchange. You perform the steps to recall and replace it. One of the following scenarios will occur:

• If the recipient reading the recall message created and has read access to all the items in the public folder, and didn't read the original message, the recall succeeds, and only the new message remains. You, the sender, receive a message indicating that the recall succeeded.
• If the recipient has already marked the original message as read, he or she is informed that the recall failed, and only the recall message is deleted.

If a user with different or any other Public Folder rights opens the recall message, the recall will fail. Both the old and new messages will stay in the Public Folder. In a Public Folder, it is the Reader's Rights, not the Sender's, that determine if a recall attempt succeeds or fails.