Recall A Sent Message In Outlook 2003
- 3
- Add a Comment
There are probably times when you have sent an e-mail message, wishing you hadn’t. If you have a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account, you can take advantage of the recall feature in such situations. For example, if you mistakenly send a message to the wrong recipient, you can recall it.
To recall a message in Outlook 2003:
- Click the Sent message folder.
- Open the message you want to recall.
- From the Actions menu, click the Recall this message option. If the command is not available, you probably don’t have an Exchange e-mail account.
- From the Recall This Message window, select Delete unread copies of this message.
- Verify that the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient option is selected.
- Click OK.
[tags]Outlook, Outlook 2003, Office, Microsoft[/tags]
3 Comments
Ben M. Schorr
April 3rd, 2007
at 2:51am
Just a quick comment on message recall - users should be aware that there are a wide range of scenarios where message recall in Outlook/Exchange will not only fail but will fail spectacularly (meaning: not only won’t it recall the message but it will highlight for the other person that you’ve said something you regret).
If the message has been marked as read, moved to a subfolder, if the other person logs into their mailbox with a non-Outlook client (like a Treo or other POP device)…lots of possible ways for it to fail. In those cases what happens is that an RTF message titled “Joe Smith would like to recall his message ‘Try a breath mint, you ape!’” is placed in their Inbox which nearly always results in the recipient scrambling to see what it is that you said.
Not that recall isn’t a useful feature, occasionally, but the user should be careful not to rely upon it. It’s hardly the “save your job” feature that some other messaging systems tout.
-B-
Ben M. Schorr
Colin Ness
August 24th, 2007
at 12:18pm
I have a naive question which I already know the answer to but just in case: If you have Exchange Server but are not using it could you set it up and retireve an email sent prior to having Exchange up and running
Juan Valdez
October 19th, 2007
at 12:16pm
Since Outlook’s recall only works on an Exchange server, it doesn’t do much good for messages sent out to other servers. However, if you are looking for some sort of email insurance, I would suggest you look at http://www.yankback.com — It lets you get an email back (actually deletes it) after it has left outlook and your computer. I use it and it has saved my butt a few times when I sent out an email which could have proved embarrassing. That may not be often, but I use it a heck of a lot when I send out something without an attachment and rather than look stupid, I yank it back and send it again.