If you are using the Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) to manage your email and have accidentally deleted an email, it may be challenging to recover. POP3 email protocol downloads your emails from the server and then deletes them from the server, meaning once an email is deleted in your client, it’s almost impossible to recover it unless you have a backup or set your email client to leave a copy on the server.
If you haven’t permanently deleted the emails and they remain in your Deleted Items or Trash folder, then recovery is a straightforward process. In most mail clients such as MS Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Apple Mail, simply go to the Deleted Items or Trash folder, find the deleted email, right-click on it and select the ‘Move’ option to restore it to your inbox or another folder.
However, if you’ve permanently deleted the email, options are less favorable. For POP3, once an email is downloaded from the server, ideally, the copy from the server is removed. Henceforth, with solely the protocol, there wouldn’t be a way to retrieve it. However, some email clients offer a preference setting to leave messages on the server.
To enable this setting in MS Outlook, for instance, you go to ‘File’, ‘Account Settings’, then select your account and click ‘More Settings’. Under the ‘Advanced’ tab, choose to “Leave a copy of messages on the server”. This option ensures a copy of each incoming email remains on the server even after it is downloaded. So, if you delete an email from your local email client, you can still access it on the webmail or other devices. But be aware that this option may fill up your email server’s storage quickly.
When it comes to the scenario when none of the above holds true, creating backups for your emails on your local environment is helpful. If you have a backup, you can import from these files to restore your deleted emails.
In general, the best approach is prevention. Regularly back up your emails and consider enabling options to leave email copies on the server as a safeguard.
Sources:
1. Lifewire: How to Recover Deleted Emails in Outlook [https://www.lifewire.com/recover-deleted-emails-in-outlook-4164487]
2. Microsoft Office Support: Recover deleted items in Outlook for Windows [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/recover-deleted-items-in-outlook-for-windows-49e81f3c-c8f4-4426-a0b9-c0fd751d48ce]
3. Indiana University Knowledge Base: If you’re not receiving mail on your computer, try these suggestions [https://kb.iu.edu/d/alhy]
4. Norton: How to Back Up Outlook Email [https://www.nortonsecurityonline.com/security-center/how-to-back-up-email.html]
