Find out when a message was deleted
Upon checking my Deleted Items folder, I came across some emails which should not have been deleted.
I’m now trying to find out how this happened and knowing when it got deleted would be a huge help.
Is there any way to determine when a message got deleted?
No, Outlook does not add a “Deleted on <date and time>” property to a message when it got deleted, nor does it record which folder the message was deleted from.
However, when you use any of the following account types, then the “Modified Date” property of a message will change when a message gets moved or deleted:
- Exchange
- Outlook Hotmail Connector
- Exchange Active Sync (EAS)
- IMAP (Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016)
Note 1: When you use a POP3 account in any version of Outlook or an IMAP account in Outlook 2010 or previous, the Modified Date will not change upon deleting a message and the below method can’t be used to determine the Deleted Date of a message.
Note 2: As other actions can also change the Modified Date of a message, it might not be a definitive way to “prove” when a message got deleted, but it is the best Outlook has to offer.
Quickly determine the Modified Date of a message
To quickly determine the Modified Date of a selected message, you can bring up its Properties dialog by pressing ALT+ENTER.
In the dialog that pops up, you’ll see the date and time for when a message was sent, received and modified.
The Properties dialog contains the last modified date and time.
