How to Recall an Email in Gmail After Sending Securely

Reasons to Recall a Sent Email in Gmail

Users often encounter many embarrassing situations while sending Gmail emails. Some of them lead to difficulties and are more harmful than others. Thus, users want to unsend an email in Gmail before the situation gets worse. There can be many causes behind as:

• When you send an email to the wrong recipient in Gmail, you need to recall it.
• Sometimes there are errors or other mistakes in the email content that need to be fixed.
• You need to recall in case of unsure about the email content or misdirection of the email.

There are many other such cases. Yet, the question is “Can an email be recalled in Gmail?”

Well, the answer to that is No. You cannot directly recall an email in Gmail, but delay the time for a specific frame to send the message. Furthermore, this requires extreme focus, or else the time may pass and you will be left with no options. Now let’s find out even if indirectly, how to recall Gmail emails and what alternatives we have for the same.

How to Recall an Email in Gmail?

As mentioned above, there is no direct manual button to recall the sent Gmail email. Still, using the Undo Feature of Gmail you can retract the email message before being sent. Remember that this method isn’t a robust solution and may have some limitations.

Manual Steps to Undo a Sent Email in Gmail

1. Firstly, log into your Gmail and send a message.
2. As soon as you hit the Send button, immediately find the Message Sent pop-up at the bottom.
3. Quickly press the Undo link to stop the mail from being sent.
4. Further, the Sending Undone message appears on the screen. Later, your email message reopens.
5. With this, you have recalled the email successfully.

However, by default, the time frame is set to 5 seconds. Obviously, it is quite a short period and passes by quickly, but no worries, as it can be increased.

Can I Retract an Email in Gmail for a Longer Period?

Yes, you can recall an email in Gmail by updating the time duration for the Undo Feature. Set it from 5 seconds to a max of 30 seconds. Follow the steps below to increase the Undo duration:

1. At the top right of your Gmail inbox, press the Gear icon and then, See All Settings.
2. After that, move to the General tab and locate the Undo Send option.
3. There, set the maximum cancellation period as desired (5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds).
4. Lastly, scroll down to the end of the page and click Save Changes.

Shortcomings of the Manual Method

• The maximum timeframe is limited up to 30 seconds only.
• Once the Undo option disappears, you cannot recall email at any cost.

Hence, all you can do is take some prevention measures like:

• Proofreading your email message.
• Check for missing attachments in your email.
• Ensuring the recipient before sending the email.
• Take a backup of your email messages to avoid loss.
• If unfortunately sent and cannot recall, direct a follow-up message.

Alternate Solution for Sent Email in Gmail

If you still are worried about your data after finding the solution on how to recall an email in Gmail. Or simply want to keep a copy of your sent emails, then use the SysInfo Gmail Backup Tool. It provides users a guarantee to backup their data securely with 100% accuracy on all Windows OS. In addition, this tool safeguards email messages from any alterations or misinterpretations. Moreover, one can easily remove duplicates or filter data using this tool. Some other exceptional features that this tool provides are:

• Ensure a safe backup of the complete Gmail mailbox without hampering data.
• Allows to preview the email message content and attachments before export.
• Helps to resolve the Google Data Migration Stuck at 99 issue.
• Downloads Gmail emails in various file formats or transfers to email clients.

Steps to Backup Sent Email in Gmail

1. Run the Gmail Email Backup Tool and choose to backup Gmail emails.
2. Then, Sign In to your Gmail account with the appropriate credentials.
3. Further, select Gmail Sent Folder to backup from the mailbox and tap Next.
4. Pick a File Format or Email Client to store the backup and apply filters.
5. Afterward, set a Save Path accordingly, and at last, click Download.

Conclusion

To sum up, this blog clarified that there is no direct approach how to recall an email in Gmail. However, with the indirect way, i.e., a manual solution, undo the send email for a while to correct any mistakes. Or else, if the undo period has passed away and you are worried about your important data. Then, use the professional tool to keep a backup of your sent emails on the local system.

Frequently Asked Questions

About The Author:

Lovely Baghel

Lovely specializes in technical writing for SysInfoTools Software and has over 2 year of experience writing blogs, and articles about databases & backup, email recovery, email migration & management solutions. Her passion is researching and developing content that helps Office users, professionals, administrators, enterprises, and novices solve multiple problems.