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The easiest ways to get your deleted mail back on an iPhone
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Viewing and deleting emails on your iPhone is an easy task with the Mail application. With just a tap, you can view your mail. Delete a mail by sliding it away on your screen. If you, however, deleted an email accidentally, you might have panicked because there’s no “Undo” option to select or a “Trash” folder to open to get it back. Luckily, this doesn’t mean that you can’t retrieve deleted emails at all.

Recovering Deleted Emails on an iPhone

  1. Click on your iPhone’s Mail app.
  2. Shake your iPhone, then click the “Undo Trash?” option.
  3. If that doesn’t work, check the trash and archive folders.
  4. When you find the email, tap on it to open it.
  5. Select the move icon to restore the email to the inbox.
Method 1
Method 1 of 3:

Retrieving a Deleted Mail with a Shake

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  1. On the home screen of your iPhone, tap the icon of a white envelope with a blue background. The Mail app interface will load on your screen.
  2. If you accidentally deleted an email, just shake your iPhone in your hand. A set of options will pop-up: “Undo Trash?” and “Cancel.”
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  3. Tap “Undo” and the deleted email will be restored in your Inbox.
    • Note that this only works for an email that has just been deleted. If you exit the Mail app, you won’t be able to retrieve the mail.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 3:

Retrieving Mails through Archive

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  1. Tap the gear icon on the home screen to open the Settings.
  2. Settings options for the mail, contacts, and calendar of your device will be displayed on the screen.
  3. This will open the settings for that account.
  4. You will see “Archive Messages” at the bottom of your mail account settings. If it is set to OFF, tap it to ON to enable archiving.
    • From now on, all deleted emails will be archived in the “All Mails” folder.
  5. Exit the Settings menu and tap the Mail app icon on the home screen.
  6. There will be a three-line icon at the top of the Mail app screen; tap it to open the app menu.
  7. From the menu, select the mail account you want to retrieve mails from (if you have multiple accounts linked).
  8. Tap the “All Mails” folder after you’ve selected an account. The screen will then display all the mails you have for the selected email account, including the deleted ones.
  9. Tap a deleted email that you want to restore to open it. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see a couple of icons. Tap the second icon from the left, which is the move icon. Your list of folders (or mailboxes) will appear. Tap on the folder you want to restore the deleted email to.
    • Repeat this for all the other deleted emails you want to retrieve.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 3:

Retrieving Deleted Emails from Trash

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  1. Find the Mail app icon on the home screen of your iPhone and tap it.
  2. Tap the a three-line icon at the top of the screen to open the app’s menu.
  3. If you have multiple accounts linked to the Mail app, they will be listed here. Tap on the account you want to retrieve deleted emails from.
  4. Tap the “Trash” folder of the mail account. All deleted emails should be here if you did not archive your mails.
  5. Open the mail to restore by tapping it, and then tap the second to the left icon to open the Move screen. All your folders, or mailboxes, will be listed; tap the one you want to restore the email in and it will be moved there.
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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    How do I restore archived email?
    Jay
    Jay
    Community Answer
    Go on the mail app and click back until you see the Mailboxes page. Scroll down to find Archive.
  • Question
    My emails are not archived, but they are no longer showing in the trash bin. I deleted them from the trash folder accidentally. Can I retrieve them?
    Scarlette
    Scarlette
    Community Answer
    Once an email gets deleted from the trash bin, it is gone forever. Most email services delete mail left in the trash bin automatically after 30 days.
  • Question
    I deleted the "all mail" account by mistake. Is there a way I can retrieve those emails?
    TD96
    TD96
    Community Answer
    Try to go on your email on a website from your provider. Check to see if you spelled it right. It might be a phishing website.
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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 311,203 times.
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Co-authors: 6
Updated: November 15, 2024
Views: 311,203
Categories: Email | IPhone
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