Recovering Deleted Items in Microsoft Outlook (Exchange 2003 Only)

 

Problem: You are an Exchange 2003 user and "hard deleted" items from a folder either via Outlook or WebMail. A hard delete is when you either:

  • Delete items from a folder, which moves them to the Deleted Items folder, and then you subsequently empty your Deleted Items folder
  • Press Shift + Delete when deleting these items, in which case they bypass the Deleted Items folder.


Solution: You can recover your items one of two ways:

  1. Via Outlook: If the items that you want to recover were deleted from the Deleted Items folder, click Outlook -> Tools -> Recover Deleted Items. This will give you a list of all the items that are recoverable. Highlight the items you want to retrieve and click Recover Deleted Items.

    If you did a Shift + Delete from a folder other than the Deleted Items folder and you are an advanced Outlook user please read the steps below.

  2. Via WebMail (Outlook Web Access):Login (OWA) to WebMail; right-click on the folder that you want to recover items from; click Open in New, and a new browser window will launch. The URL in this new browser will have a "/?Cmd=contents" at the end; change this to "?Cmd=showdeleted". The URL should follow this syntax:
    https://webmail.MyOutlookOnline.com/company.username/deleted items/?Cmd=showdeleted

    NOTE: Deleted items are only available for two days after you've done a hard delete.


Advanced User Instructions

If you did a Shift + Delete from a folder other than the Deleted Items folder, you need to add the following registry entry to enable the Recover Deleted Items option from that folder:

  1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
  2. Locate and click the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options
  3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
    Value name: DumpsterAlwaysOn
    Data type: DWORD
    Value data: 1
  4. Quit Registry Editor.
  5. Restart your computer.