How to Recover a Deleted Item

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use Microsoft Outlook to recover an item that was deleted from an Exchange mailbox. Deleted item retention must be configured on the server. Otherwise, there will be no deleted items stored in the dumpster available for recovery. By default, the DumpsterAlwaysOn registry key is set to 1 in Outlook 2007, so all folders are enabled for deleted item recovery. By default, all folders are recoverable on the Exchange server.

In Outlook 2003 and earlier versions, only the Deleted Items folder is enabled for recovery by default. All folders are recoverable, however, you must enable the ability to see the items in the dumpster. You must use the DumpsterAlwaysOn registry key to recover hard-deleted items, which are those items that were deleted while holding down the SHIFT key and that were never moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Warning

Incorrectly editing the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Problems resulting from editing the registry incorrectly may not be able to be resolved. Before editing the registry, back up any valuable data.

Before You Begin

To recover a deleted item, you must have owner rights to the mailbox from which you are recovering deleted items.

Procedure

To recover deleted items from the Deleted Items folder with Outlook

  1. Open an Outlook client that has access to the mailbox that has deleted items.

  2. Select the Deleted Items folder.

  3. From the Tools menu, select Recover Deleted Items.

  4. Select the item that you want to recover, and then click Recover Selected Items.

To use the DumpsterAlwaysOn registry key to recover hard-deleted items

  1. On the client computer used to perform the deleted items recovery operation, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

  2. Locate, and then click the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options

  3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

  4. Type DumpsterAlwaysOn, and then press ENTER.

  5. Double-click DumpsterAlwaysOn.

  6. Type 1 in the Value data area, click Decimal in the Base area, and then click OK.

  7. Close Registry Editor.

  8. Restart Outlook.

To recover deleted items from any folder with Outlook

  1. If the DumpsterAlwaysOn registry key has not been set, set it before proceeding by following the steps outlined in "To use the DumpsterAlwaysOn registry key to recover hard-deleted items" earlier in this topic. If the DumpsterAlwaysOn registry key has been set, proceed to Step 2.

  2. Open an Outlook client that has access to the mailbox that has deleted items.

  3. Select the folder that has deleted items in it.

  4. From the Tools menu, select Recover Deleted Items.

  5. Select the items that you want to recover, and then click Recover Selected Items.

For More Information

For more information about deleted item retention, see Configuring Deleted Mailbox and Deleted Item Retention.