How to recover items that have been hard deleted in Outlook
By default, the Recover Deleted Items functionality is only enabled on the Deleted Items folder in a user’s private folders; items that are hard deleted cannot be recovered. To enable the Recover Deleted Items functionality on mail folders other than Deleted Items (for example, for Sent Items, Drafts, Outbox and Inbox folders), you must make the following changes to the registry:
- Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe)
- Locate and click the following key in the registry:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options
- On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
- Value name: DumpsterAlwaysOn
- Data type: DWORD
- Value data: 1
- Quit Registry Editor
You can use an administrator’s computer or a user’s computer to make this change to the registry. After you change the registry, start Outlook, and then click Deleted Item Recovery on the Tools menu. A list of items that have been hard deleted during the retention time set on the server is displayed.
If you are an administrator, you can set this functionality for all user workstations. To do so, use your computer to change the registry for all user workstations, and then open the affected user’s mailbox as an additional mailbox. You can then recover deleted items from the user’s mailbox mail folders.