Accidentally deleting an email on your iPhone can be frustrating, but there are several easy methods to recover them, using either the built-in Mail app or the Gmail app.
Before attempting to recover deleted emails, ensure that the “Shake to Undo” feature is enabled on your iPhone. To do this, go to the Settings app, select Accessibility, then Touch, and make sure Shake to Undo is turned on.
Follow these different methods to quickly locate and restore emails you thought were gone for good from the native Mail app or the Gmail app.
If you just accidentally deleted an email, immediately shake your iPhone. A pop-up window will appear with an option to Undo Archive or Undo Trash. Tap the Undo button to restore the deleted email directly to your inbox. Note that this only works if you have not closed the Mail app since deleting the message. If shaking your iPhone does nothing, you may need to enable the feature by opening the Settings app, tapping Accessibility, selecting Touch, and ensuring the toggle switch next to Shake to Undo is in the On position.
If your account is set to archive messages instead of deleting them, open the Mail app and tap Mailboxes at the top of the screen. Select the account you are using and then tap All Mail, which has an icon that looks like a file box. Locate the email you want to restore and tap it to open it. Tap the folder icon at the bottom of the screen and then choose Inbox to move the message back.
For accounts that send discarded messages to the trash, tap Mailboxes from the main screen of the Mail app. Tap the Trash folder that is associated with your email account. Find the message you wish to recover and tap it to open it completely. Select the folder icon at the bottom, and then tap Inbox or another folder of your choice to restore the email.
Immediately after deleting a message in the Gmail app, a banner will appear at the bottom that says “Moved to Trash.” Tap the Undo button on this banner to instantly retrieve it. If the Undo banner is gone, you can recover the email from the Trash folder by opening the Trash folder from the app’s main menu, tapping and holding to select the message you want to restore, tapping the menu icon (•••) in the top-right corner, and choosing Move from the options. Select a destination, such as Primary, to move the emails back to your inbox.
Most email services automatically empty the Trash folder after a certain period, often 30 days. Act quickly to recover deleted emails before they are permanently removed from the server.
Knowing how to recover deleted emails is a crucial skill for any iPhone user. Accidental swipes and taps are common on touchscreens, and these recovery methods provide an essential safety net. This ensures that important communications, digital receipts, or critical attachments are not lost forever due to a simple mistake.
Furthermore, understanding the difference between archiving and deleting helps you manage your inbox more effectively. By intentionally archiving less critical emails, you can declutter your main inbox for better focus without the risk of permanently losing information that you might need to reference later.
