How to Edit a Sent Email in Outlook: 4 Working Methods

Outlook does not let you open a delivered message and rewrite it inside the recipient’s inbox. Once you hit Send, that copy belongs to the recipient’s mailbox, not yours. Still, Outlook gives you a few practical ways to fix mistakes after sending, and the right one depends on your account type and whether the recipient has already opened the message.

Can You Actually Edit a Sent Email in Outlook?

Not directly, but you have three realistic options depending on your situation.

• Recall the original message and replace it with a corrected version.
• Resend a corrected copy without deleting the original.
• Edit the copy sitting in your own Sent Items folder, which only updates what you see, not what the recipient sees.

Your Outlook version and account type (Exchange, Microsoft 365, or a personal account like Outlook.com or Gmail) decide which of these actually works for you.

Method 1: Recall the Message

Recall is the closest Outlook comes to true editing, but it only works under specific conditions.

For recall to succeed, all of these must be true:

• Both sender and recipient use Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 accounts inside the same organization.
• The recipient has not opened the original email yet.
• The message is still sitting in the recipient’s Inbox and hasn’t been moved by a rule or by hand.

If you’re on a personal account like Outlook.com, Gmail, or any IMAP/POP setup, recall won’t work for you at all. Skip ahead to Method 2.

Steps in Classic Outlook (365 to 2016)

1. Open the Sent Items folder and double-click the email you need to fix.
2. On the Message tab, click the three-dot menu at the right end of the toolbar, then select Actions > Recall This Message. This opens a small dialog box with two options.
3. In that dialog box, choose one of the two options depending on what you need. Select Delete unread copies and replace with a new message if you want to send a corrected version. Select Delete unread copies of this message instead if you just want the original removed with nothing sent in its place.
4. Keep the notification checkbox selected if you want to know whether the recall worked, then click OK.
5. Outlook reopens the original message for editing. Make your changes and click Send.

Steps in New Outlook and Outlook on the Web

1. Open the message from Sent Items in its own window.
2. Click Recall message on the ribbon. If you don’t see it, click the three-dot More actions menu instead.
3. Choose Recall and open this message as a draft, then click OK.
4. Edit the draft that opens and click Send.

Act on a mistake as soon as you spot it. Recall requests race against the recipient opening the email, so a faster attempt has a better shot at succeeding.

If you kept the notification checkbox selected, Outlook emails you a result once the recall finishes processing. It will tell you whether each recipient’s copy was successfully deleted and replaced, or whether the recall failed because they had already opened it. A failed or partial recall means some recipients still have the original message, so it’s worth following up with a corrected email in those cases.

Method 2: Resend an Edited Copy

When recall isn’t available, such as when you emailed someone outside your organization or from a personal account, resending is the simplest fix. Unlike recall, resend never tries to delete or replace anything in the recipient’s inbox. It just creates an editable copy of the original message and sends it as a new email, so the recipient ends up with both.

1. Open Sent Items and double-click the message.
2. In classic Outlook, go to Message > Actions > Resend This Message. In new Outlook or the web version, click More actions and select Resend message.
3. Edit the copy that opens in a new window.
4. Click Send.

Since the recipient will see both emails, it helps to open the new message with a line like “Please disregard my previous email, here’s the corrected version.”

Method 3: Edit Your Own Sent Items Copy

This method is different from the first two: it does not change anything the recipient sees. Classic Outlook (365 to 2016) lets you edit the version of the message stored in your own Sent Items folder, but that only updates your personal record. It’s useful for adding notes later, not for fixing a typo the recipient already read.

1. Open Sent Items and double-click the email.
2. Go to Message > Actions > Edit Message.
3. Make your changes.
4. Press Ctrl + S to save.
5. Close the message window.

This option isn’t available in new Outlook or Outlook on the web.

Method 4: Turn On Undo Send to Catch Mistakes Before They’re Sent

Outlook also has a feature that stops a mistake before it becomes a sent email at all. Undo Send holds your message for a short delay after you click Send, giving you a window to cancel it before it ever reaches the recipient.

1. Go to Settings > Mail > Compose and reply.
2. Find the Undo send option.
3. Set your preferred delay period.
4. Click Save.

Once enabled, clicking Send shows a brief Undo option for the delay period you chose. Selecting it pulls the message back into your drafts before it ever leaves your outbox. This won’t help with an email you already sent in the past, but it’s worth setting up so you have a buffer the next time you hit Send too soon.

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