How to recover deleted emails in Gmail on a computer or mobile device

• You can recover deleted emails in Gmail for up to 30 days before they are permanently deleted.
• To restore a message, just find it in the Trash folder and use the Move or Move To command to put it elsewhere.
• If you are an admin, you may have an additional 25 days to recover a message from the Admin console. 
• Visit Insider’s Tech Reference library for more stories.

When you delete a Gmail message, it’s not gone instantly. Thankfully, you have up to 30 days to recover the message before it’s gone forever. If you need to recover an email, you can easily retrieve it from a web browser, iPad, iPhone, or an Android device. 

How to recover deleted emails in Gmail on a computer

1. Open Gmail in a web browser on your computer and sign in to your Google account if you’re not already logged in.

2. On the left side of the page, scroll to the bottom of your labels and click More, then click Trash.

3. To the left of each email you want to recover, click the checkbox to select the message. 

4. At the top of the message list, click Move to and then choose a location (like Inbox) to recover the emails to. 

How to recover deleted emails in Gmail on an iPhone or iPad

1. Start the Gmail app. 

2. At the top left, tap the three-line menu and tap Trash.

3. To the left of each email you want to recover, tap the round user icon. It should turn into a checkmark. 

4. At the top right, tap the three-dot menu. In the pop-up menu at the bottom of the screen, tap Move. 

5. Tap the location (like Inbox) where you want to recover the emails to. 

How to recover deleted emails in Gmail on Android

1. Start the Gmail app. 

2. At the top left, tap the three-line menu and tap Trash.

3. To the left of each email you want to recover, tap the round user icon. It should turn into a checkmark. 

4. At the top right, tap the three-dot menu. In the popup menu at the bottom of the screen, tap Move to. 

5. Tap the location (like Inbox) where you want to recover the emails to.

How to recover a user’s emails in Gmail as an administrator

Users have 30 days after deleting a message in which they can recover it from the Trash folder. After that, the message is permanently deleted, though it’s possible the administrator can restore messages from the Admin consoles for an additional 25 days.

1. Sign into the Google Admin Console. 

2. On the Home page, click Users.

3. In the list of users, click the user you are trying to recover messages for. Click More, then click Restore data.

4. Choose the date range for the emails you want to restore. 

5. Select Gmail as the type of data to restore.

6. Click Restore.