How to recover trash email from gmail

Q: How can I restore my deleted emails in Gmail?

Emails deleted from Gmails Trash folder are removed permanently. There is no way to get them back. So, be careful when clicking Delete forever” in Gmail. Emails in the Trash folder are automatically deleted after 30 days, so its recommended to simply leave the email there.

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Table of Contents Show

Accidentally deleted email
Deleting email in the spam folder
Can you recover Gmail emptied trash?
How can I restore my deleted emails in Gmail?
How do I get an email back after emptying the trash?

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As a Google Workspace admin, you’re likely familiar with panic-struck end users asking you to restore Gmail messages that are lost. Here are some common Gmail data loss scenarios, with steps to use Spanning Backup to restore email messages in a couple of clicks.

Restoring Lost Email

Consider two examples for end user Gmail data loss:

The end user accidentally deleted an email, then empties their Trash to free up space. Now they can’t find the missing email using any of Google’s built-in methods.
An end user maliciously deleted important messages with critical information in anger; after hearing there are plans for company-wide layoffs.

In cases like these, if Spanning Backup for Google Workspace has been installed for your domain and the end user is assigned a Spanning license, you can restore that email in a few minutes:

Log in to Spanning Backup for Google Workspace as an admin.
Select the desired user’s account that you want to restore by using the dropdown in the upper right corner of the screen.
Click “Restore” in the left sidebar.
Search by date range or subject line for the email to be restored.
Once you find it, select it, and then click Restore.

Self-Restoring Email

Spanning Backup for Google Workspace is purpose-built to allow Google Workspace administrators and their colleagues in IT to focus on high value projects. Giving end users the ability to restore their own emails does just that – freeing up IT admin time – while making recovery quick, easy and accessible for users.

Your end users can self-restore lost Gmail messages with these simple steps.

Log in to Spanning Backup for Google Workspace with your user credentials.
Navigate to Restore and select the Gmail tab
Search by date range or subject line for the email to be restored.
Select it, and then click Restore.

Restoring Email to Another User

The need to restore mail after an employee has left is a common scenario. For example, for restoring email from an ex-employee to their manager. However, it may be complicated by an employee deleting important messages, intentionally or accidentally. With Spanning Backup for Google Workspace installed, you can restore that mail quickly and easily.

Sign into Spanning Backup as a admin.
Select the desired user’s account that you want to restore by using the dropdown in the upper right corner of the screen.
Select the data you’re wanting to restore and click the “Restore” button.
When prompted, select the user that you’re wanting the email messages restored to.

Spanning supports easy recovery based on your requirement – restore from a point-in-time, search and filter for specific lost artifacts, restore to another account and restore from Team drives. Spanning Backup also supports Google Workspace account recovery. Most importantly, Spanning is so intuitive to use that the end-user can restore their own lost or misplaced emails, files, folders and content in Google Workspace with minimal training and no IT intervention. Thus enabling faster recovery while reducing the load on the IT department. Don’t get derailed by data loss incidents related to Gmail, Drive (including Team Drives), Calendars, Contacts and Sites.

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If you delete an email from your inbox, it will initially be put into the Trash folder. The email will only be permanently deleted if you delete it in the Trash folder or empty the trash, or if the email's storage time has expired. Permanently deleted email cannot be recovered.

The default storage time for email in the Trash folder is 1 day. However, you can customize the storage time for email in the Trash folder.

Accidentally deleted email

If you accidentally deleted an email, please check whether the email is in the Trash folder. You can move the email back to your inbox.

Deleting email in the spam folder

If you delete email from the Spam folder or empty the Spam folder, the email will not be moved to the Trash folder. The email are immediately permanently deleted.

Can you recover Gmail emptied trash?

For up to 30 days after deleting, users can recover their own messages from the Trash by following the steps in Recover deleted Gmail messages. After 30 days, messages are permanently deleted from the Trash, and can't be restored from the Trash by users or administrators.

How can I restore my deleted emails in Gmail?

Emails deleted from Gmail's Trash folder are removed permanently. There is no way to get them back. So, be careful when clicking “Delete forever” in Gmail. Emails in the Trash folder are automatically deleted after 30 days, so it's recommended to simply leave the email there.