Lost draft email

Question

Hello, I had a list of books I have read over several years as a draft email. I looked at the email today and see it is completely blank. I have done nothing. The draft email (with the same subject) remains in my draft folder.
Is there any way to recover this? I did nothing to delete the content. It just disappeared.
This is content of some sentimental value and I'd love to recover it.

Answer 1

Hi @Dom ,
What's the type of your account(POP, IMAP, Exchange)?
Could you find the draft in the Web Mail?

I looked at the email today and see it is completely blank.

As I know, there's no option in Outlook that could make the draft message disappeared and just turn to blank. In order to further analyze if your original draft is disappeared, please first search for it in your Web Mail.

If the original draft couldn't be searched out, in the point of Outlook client, archive policy may cause the message move to other location as Manu mentioned, which may cause you couldn't search out it. It's suggested to check the setting of auto archive in your Outlook (File>Options>Advanced>Auto-archive setting).

Also, accidentally deleting it permanently also may cause the message couldn't be searched out. If you are using exchange account, the option of "Recover deleted items from server" could recover the items that be deleted recently(choose the “Deleted Items” folder> click Recover Deleted Items from Server). Otherwise, I'm afraid the item couldn't be recovered.

Besides, if the original draft could be found in your Web Mail and the issue only happen to the Outlook client, it may be related to the synchronization error between client and server, it's suggested to create a new profile and re-add your account to check(Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Add>type a profile name>re-add your account).

Hope this could be helpful to you.

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Answer 2

I had the same issue today. I was writing a draft mail and it suddenly disappeared. Not sure if i pressed some keys but i was able to find it in Archive folder.

Answer 3

I believe that this is an Outlook bug, as no useful answer has been provided. I am using Outlook 2021 fully updated, I do not have any archive settings in effect, etc., and yet after editing a draft, way too often ALL my edits are lost, and I have to start over. What a pain. There does not seem to be a way to save my work to prevent this and such edits are not automatically saved, rather they get lost if one moves his/her focus to another e-mail, or "goes" away, even if briefly, expecting to come back with one's last edits still there. Nope, gone. Where? This is NOT an answer, and this thread is NOT solved.

Answer 4

I am so upset and annoyed. I literally updated a draft on a mobile outlook app, closed it, got back into it to check a note, closed it again and it disappeared the next time I went to open it. Vanished. I absolutely didn't delete it. Then I realized half my drafts say no content. What is wrong with people making this product?

Answer 5

Having read through all these complaints and the purported answers or suggestions, it is clear that it doesn't matter which platform one is using Outlook from, in my case a software package (Office 2021, supposedly the last stand alone software version of Office, after which they were to go to subscription only, not sure if that ever happened) from Microsoft on a computer, fully updated, and fairly recent (2021). I open an e-mail, and begin editing it, as if to respond, or whatever, then if I go elsewhere, even briefly, often my edits are lost, and there doesn't seem to be a way to save them--perhaps an answer to that, would be a useful way to start--go elsewhere? Like look at a browser page, or do something else in Outlook, or whatever, if not staying in the e-mail opened and being edited, once I attempt to reopen it, it is either completely gone, or the edits are not there, as if I wasn't editing it at all. Ugh. Such a pain. Note that one does have to click on Reply or Forward or something even to be able to edit, so once that is done, there should also be a way to save the edits, or make it into a Draft--anyone? Back to which one can go to resume editing or whatever one intends to do with it. This should happen automatically and any such edited e-mails should automatically be saved in the appropriate Drafts folder, where one can find them reliably; that is, if Outlook worked properly. It does not. After performing even a minor edit, let alone anything major--God forbid, quite often if one does something else, opens another window or whatever, expecting to simply resume editing where one left off, one cannot find any draft, or possibly even a copy of the original e-mail, or if once can get back to the original e-mail, all one's edits are gone, as if one was never there editing it. Ugh. This is an Outlook bug, not proper behavior, and as far as I know--I could be wrong--not acknowledged as such by MS. Anyone on that--known acknowledged bug? Citation? I did customize my ribbon putting in a Save As command--note not Save Draft, as that was not available, but it will save the item in some folder outside of Outlook (of one's choice), however not in the appropriate drafts folder in Outlook--unless I can figure out where that is, and its name's possibly, assuming that I would have access to it sufficient to place another item into it, presumably to be opened by me again, hopefully by Outlook, if I double click the saved file name. Is this a work around, or idiocy? Does anyone have a better idea, how one can force a Draft to be saved after doing some editing on an e-mail? Should be trivial, right? If not something automatically done by Outlook, in any case.