Some tips to share or to avoid from accidentally delete all your emails in your inbox MS Outlook. When I’m cleaning up and organizing my emails in MS outlook, I accidentally click the “Clear Offline Items” in the inbox properties page causes all my important emails are gone.
However, it can be recovered if you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account in Cached Exchange mode which I believe most companies setup their outlook in this way.
So what I do is to click “Send and Receive” button to synchronize all the emails in the server back to my Outlook. This is how you can undo the "Clear Offline Items" in Outlook in case one day you accidentally click the "Clear Offiline Itemes" in MS Outlook.
139 Comments:
Thank you! This article truly saved me. I clicked Send/Receive and every calendar item reappeared. I thought I was hosed.
You're welcome! I thought I would lost all the emails and calender too at that time. :)
Thanks! I wrongly presses clear offline items, your message saved me!
Thanks a lot :) i got my mails back :)
Thanks a lot, your message saved by day. Microsoft should consider a warning message before clearing emails.
You did help me with this... thanks!
Thanks - was very helpful :-)
Have a nice day! from Romania
Single handledly one of the most useful posts I've ever seen on the web. Thank you for sharing and also saving me from a bad blunder.
The people who put that button in Outlook with no warning message, associated help or definition should be ashamed of themselves.
Surprisingly, quite many of you have the same issue. :) I"m glad that this post helps. :)
You are really a Champ..........It really saved me too......
Thanks a lot........
Oh my gosh - I was in a panic when this happened to me and I lost my calendar! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
THANKYOU! Saved me today!
Legend!
Thanks
x
hi thanks for your article..
i shat bricks when i clicked clear offline items.. and your article helped me.
:)
Just thought I'd let you know, ChampDog, this post is still saving lives...
thanks!
whew !!!!
Thanks everyone! :) There is an hidden feature in outlook that allows you to recover from deleted items. I"m not sure if you guys are aware of this. I will write about this. :)
I was panic, when it happened. But this post really saved me. Thanks a lot. Got all my mails and calender items back.
Thanks a lot. I accidentally pressed it when I was searching to set an alert item for that folder...
Thanks man, I really did not know what to do and get back my mails. You saved me.
You saved me, I almost wanted to break something !!!
my goodness! I am so thankful for this post. My boss accidentally did this on her email and lost her ENTIRE calendar. After 5 mins of freaking out we had her back up and running again. Legend.
So, would you get more raise because of this? Hahaha... I'm just kidding.
Btw, I wrote about how to recover those emails that you may accidentally permanently delete them. Hope this will be helpful to you guys one day...
Undo & Recover Deleted Items in Outlook
Scary moment, easily solved with this information. Thanks for the warning message and confirmation, Microsoft.
while I appreciate your post to help others, clearing offline cache does not delete items from mail server - whether it is calendar items or emails.
As name says all it does is cleaning\removing what is on cached(local copy), this is helpful when you are troubleshooting corrupted reminders etc..
If your outlook is set to cache mode the it will rebuild\reload the cache file next time outlook connect to exchange server - either by send and receive or reopening outlook.
But for non IT users may get a shock when they see outlook without their emails, calendar and task entries.
Yes, you're right. The thing is that it doesn't clearly stated it is cleaning the cache.
Anyway, even for deleted items. They're not completely deleted in the mail exchange server. You still can recover them by modifying the registry:
http://softwaretracker.blogspot.com/2009/11/undo-or-recover-deleted-items-in.html
This post saved the day for me by showing me exactly what to do when I accidentally clicked the Clear Offline button! Thanks very much!
Thanks a bunch. Saved my bacon!p
Thanks bro!!!! Join my persatuan itik itik malaysia!
Persatuan itik itik? Hahaha...
Thank you thought I was toast!
Thank you very much !!
You saved my all mails and efforts...
Thanks again.
Thanks alots .. ChampDog
AMAZING TIP! THANK YOU!!!
TQ!!! It just saved my life!!!! Stupid Microsoft!!!!!
Thank you!!!!
Can I get a WOOF WOOF? Thanks ChampDog for the post, I had a ton of emails I thought I had just lost.
This option should at the very least have a warning saying "Are you sure you want to do this blah blah."
Thanks!
Woof woof! Hahaha... Yes, I agree with you that they should give a least some warnings.
Thanks a lot! This worked out!!!
This post is still saving Inbox contents... Thank you very much!
OMG!! thank you so much!! I almost had a heart attack!!
Beautiful!!! Life saver. I accidently clicked that button and damn, I for sure thought I was screwed. Thanks for you help.
Check me out at www.ramblingtech.com
You're welcome, Danny.
Life saver! thanks
This was exactly what I needed after heart failure for thinking I deleted every meeting in my calendar forever! Oh my god, I still can't believe I got it all back. Thank you!!!!
My heart was in my throat thinking I deleted all of my calendar items.
THANK YOU!!!
Thanks very much. That saved me for sure.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
SAVED MY BUTT!!!
Thanks! I was shocked at no message by MS before cleaning out all items... .stupid...
Thank you! thank you! thank you! This article was a life saver.
From Sherrie in Antigua.
you just saved my ass!!!!
thanks for the tip.
Thanks so much. Helped me too!
Thank you. I actually clicked the question mark in the top bar of the window to get the question mark cursor then clicked the button hoping to get an explanation of what it was for... it still poofed my e-mails - damn M$
thanks for the quick tip on restoring everything!
This didn't work for me initially. It turns out that if you don't wait for the synchronization you can be stuck with only partially synced items.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820867
You saved our asses , your help is appreciated man. Thank YOU!!
Waouw, amazing ! I was completely lost but you saved me !!! How comes microsoft doesn't ask you to confirm you want to run that action ?
Thx. Ditto most of the comments above. :-)
holy crap! that was close! thank you so much! i thought it would just clear a few reminders i made, not EVERYTHING!
your article saved me big time!!!
Thanks a lot man. God Bless you.
Thank you! It's been over two years since your original post and this is still saving people!
If I had any option to use software other than than the flaky inconsistent crapola that Microsoft put out (honourable exception - Excel), I would leap on it like a desert dingo on a pile of fresh offal. This post saved my life! You are a HERO!
Wow, 2 years! I just realized that...
Not gonna lie... I totally pressed that button and thought I was done for.
But ChampDog is definitely the MAN!
Thanks very much!
That was fantastic, Saved almost my job
Thanks. You saved one more person almost 3 years after your post!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Another person saved from certain doom. This time, all contacts were lost. "Update Folder" under "Send/Receive" (Outlook 2010) did the trick. THANKS!
It didn't work!!!
Can you elaborate more why it didn't work? One reason could be you're not using the MS exchange server.
This worked and saved my bacon. Thank you!!
Another life saved! Thank you, ChampDog!
Thanks a lot, phew! for a moment I thought I had lost my mails.
Holy cow, that's a terrible button without explanation on Outlook, and I feel even dopier actually clicking it. Your post is brief, helpful, and amazing! Many thanks.
kudus for your time and comments:
I also wanna add that actually it should have been stated that the cache folder would be reloaded/refreshed, to avoid heart attack.
When I made this mistake I was at peace bcos I'm a support person and I know that microsoft is always flexible with 'undo features' - I got all my messages back immediately a mail entered my box. It just auto synchronize.
Thanks again everyone! Apparently this post is still alive... :)
WOW! Thank you! There should have been a warning before it deleted items.
Sweet holy internet !
You should be proud of having posted this so long ago and still getting praised by clumsy people who like me, clicked on that button, it really could use a warning
Thank you so much. This saved my new job. I did not come across this situation in my 7yrs of career. I was trying to clean up my inbox to stop getting that warning email and here I go with 1 click...
thank you very much....
Thank you so much!!! The help desk for my company didn't know how to fix it! :)
Life Saver....Saved my job :)
Yes you continue to save people. Thanks for rescuing my calendar!!
Thanks for the hint. In my case though, it worked after I clicked on 'Update Folder'. I use Outlook 2010.
Thanks for the sharing. :)
Thankyou.. !! this post helped me a lot .
Just in case it didn't look like it worked. After pressing the "Send/Receive" button. Nothing happened. I closed Outlook then Opened again, and there they were.. my emails were back.
Thanks for the help.
I'm another person where this saved me. ALL of my work life (and a chunck of personal things) were saved on my calender and this helped me get the items back on! Thank you!!!!!
Can't say enough how useful your post was. Thank you!
It's just amazing post, saved me
After so many years since you published this article, you might be surprised of how many people you helped. Thank you so much! I thought I lost all my current emails...
Still saving ppl! Thanks for your post.
Oh my goodness - thank you so much for your blog! I thought I had lost everything. Thanks so much!!
Thanks a lot...
Thanks a lot...
Thanks a lot :) very useful article.
Yep, still saving people ChampDog - this time me!! The woofman is da man!! Cheers!
Boy that scared me. many thanks, life saver.
You saved my calender 3 years after your post! THANK YOU SOO MUCH!
Thank you so much!!! being a bit of an i.t learner this saved my life!!
Thanks a ton. You saved me from a minor attack!
THANKS that worked great
Wow, that was scary. Thanks for the post I thought my calendar was gone forever.
You truly saved my life here!!! It worked, and MS should feel shameful about not even warn user what this feature does. Where is Linux nowadays, monopoly really is a bad thing...
You can view it as a bad or good thing. :)
Thank you for this! as another user mentioned i had not come across this in 5 or so years and was gobsmacked when my inbox disappeared... Thanks for the posting!!
Thank you for this! as another user mentioned i had not come across this in 5 or so years and was gobsmacked when my inbox disappeared... Thanks for the posting!!
another satisfied customer. worked as advertised!! this saved me! thanks.
Thank you for this!!! It saved my me ruining my own sunday worry about contact company service desk to 'restore' my inbox!!!!
Kudos!!!
Very useful. I assume Outlook would have recovered the items during the next start, but still - many thanks.
thank you so much for the tip! I was about to kill myself!
Thank You!!!
Thank you for your post!!! I was imagining there was no way to recover my appointments until I found your post.
Thanks!!!
Thank you!!! My hands are still shaking. What if...?You saved me!
Unfortunately it hasn't worked for me. I hit send/receive but nothing happens, even if i restart outlook still nothing happens :( Any suggestions?
I think that is only for MS exchange server mode which you retrieve your message from the exchange server. This is the common setup for office. Maybe yours is not using MS exchange server?
It also depends on your administration setting at server,it may not work too. It needs to be set to cached exchange mode if I remember correctly.
Phew! it worked.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot. it worked for me. This information has saved after three years after it got posted.
Thanks so much.. you were a life saver....
thanks a million, it works
Never seen a post with so many thankful replies. You clearly deserve them ChampDog.
One more from me... Thanks a lot.
You saved me today!!! Never again i'll click that button!!!
Didn't work for me. What did work was pressing "Download Headers" for some odd reason that doesn't make sense.
You save my life.
It really works.
Thank you very much.
My heart stopped when everything disappeared. Thanks for this!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I thought I'd deleted all of my work email from my inbox, but your blog answer came to my rescue!!! (Ummm... why can't they make that button a little bit clearer on what it means, or at least have a pop-up that asks if you really want to clear your inbox out before actually doing that??)
lol you're welcome! Can't believe this issue still here after many years. I"m glad that this post still helps.
Yes, it is really not clear. Is there way to file a problem report to Microsoft? Perhaps they don't even know this is a problem!
Before the Ambulance gets here to take me to A&E (ER) let me buy you a beer. I think my heart stopped.
what a stupid thing to do... delete all your calendar appointments with 1 button click. Thanks MicroSoft.
Oh i must go i hear the paramedics at me door!
Another user saved by this article. I was going to be so embarrassed asking for help.
Thanks a lot. This info is very helpful.It saved my day!
Wow! Went through all stages of grief - paniced, then denial, then decided maybe it was a good thing,then freak out to crying when I was the messages came back. Thanks!
Was trying to fix someones outlook and accidentally clicked this.... you saved me (I'm a tech support guy as well)
Wow, add another person to the 130 or so you've already helped with your post on how to regain our calendars and mail.
Thank you very, very, very, very much.
Thanks you saved my bacon!!
Thanks ever so much. Hope this post never gets deleted. Phew!
Let me add my voice to the chorus! thank you, thank you, thank you!
Another heart-felt thank you! Saved my hide!
Thanks so much..
What is the use of this feature actually?
Good point, not really sure, it just clears the local copy of your email. Perhaps it is used when you mess up your mailbox.
Or another way I can think of is it is used when MS exchange server is configured in a cached exchange mode. Server will not keep the copy once downloaded. So this feature will clear all your emails at one shot! But isn't that I can use the delete function? lol No idea, a useless feature actually.
Thank you! as many others have said - this was a life-saver!!
Repeating just what everyone said... thank you - you're a lifesaver.
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