How can I recover items that I have "hard deleted" in Outlook?

You have hard deleted (permanently deleted) items in Outlook and want to recover them. For example, if you do not move items to the Deleted Items folder before you delete them, these items are hard deleted, and you cannot recover them from the Deleted Items folder.

Note If your Exchange server is not configured to keep deleted items, the Fix this problem button or the steps to change the registry do not work. This solution requires you to use a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 account, an Exchange Server 2003 account, or an Exchange Server 2007 account. Most home and personal accounts do not use Microsoft Exchange.

To have us fix this problem for you automatically in Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2002, go to the “Fix it for me” section. If you’d rather fix this problem yourself or if you're running an earlier version of Outlook, go to the “Let me fix it myself” section.

Note The fix in the “Fix it for me” section enables the Recover Deleted Items functionality on mail folders other than the Deleted Items folder, such as the Sent Items folder, the Drafts folder, the Outbox folder, and the Inbox folder. The change applies to these folders and is in effect from the time you change the setting. No deleted items are recovered when you make this change. To recover deleted items, click Deleted Item Recovery on the Tools menu.

To fix this problem automatically in Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2002, click the Fix this problem link. Then, click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in this wizard. If you're running an earlier version of Outlook or you’d rather fix this problem yourself go to the “Let me fix it myself” section.

Fix this problem

Note This wizard is temporarily in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.

Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD so that you can run it on the computer that has the problem.

After the wizard is completed, go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: By default, the Recover Deleted Items functionality is only enabled on the Deleted Items folder in a user's private folders. Items that are hard deleted cannot be recovered. To enable the Recover Deleted Items functionality on mail folders other than the Deleted Items folder (for example, for the Sent Items, Drafts, Outbox and Inbox folders), make the following changes to the registry:

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate and then 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. Close Registry Editor.

You can use an administrator's computer or a user's computer to make this change to the registry. After you change the registry, start Outlook, and then click Deleted Item Recovery on the Tools menu. A list of items that were hard deleted during the retention time that is set on the server is displayed.

If you are an administrator, you can set this functionality for all user workstations. To do this, use your computer to change the registry for all user workstations, and then open the affected user's mailbox as an additional mailbox. You can then recover deleted items from the user's mailbox mail folders.

Note If you are an administrator, and you want to open another user's mailbox to recover items in the user's private folders, your Windows NT account must have User permissions for that user's mailbox object. You must also add that user's mailbox to your own profile. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Control Panel, and then double-click Mail.
2. Open the Services properties, and then double-click Microsoft Exchange Server.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Add to add the mailbox to your profile.

After you follow these steps, go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

More information

When you delete items from a folder in a mailbox, the items first are shifted to the Deleted Items folder in the mailbox. You can then delete these items from the Deleted Items folder. This functionality protects you from accidentally deleting an item. After you delete the items from the Deleted Items folder, these items can still be recovered if the Exchange Server computer is configured to keep deleted items. To determine whether the server is configured in this manner, open the properties of the public and private information store objects under the Server object.

For more information about how to configure the server to retain deleted items, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: It is also possible to permanently delete items without first moving them to the Deleted Items folder. This procedure is called a "hard delete" as opposed to a "soft delete."

Messages are hard deleted in the following scenarios:

• You are using Microsoft Outlook, and you press SHIFT+DELETE to delete a message.
• You are using an Internet Message Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4) client or another type of client that does not first move the message to the Deleted Items folder.

The Recover Deleted Items functionality in Outlook 98, in Outlook 2000, and in Outlook 2002

In Outlook 98, the Recover Deleted Items functionality is available only for mail folders (for example, Deleted Items, Drafts, Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items folders). Therefore, items that are hard-deleted from non-mail folders (for example, Contacts and Notes folders) cannot be recovered. However, in Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002, the Recover Deleted Items functionality is available for all folders; if you make the registry change described earlier in this article, you can recover hard-deleted items from non-mail folders.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: