Outlook 2016 how to recover deleted folder

Florio · 17 Jan 2018

Any Microsoft Outlook 2016 experts out there??!!

I recently set up Outlook 2016 to handle my Gmail account. This led to my having all sorts of folders to manage, amongst them 'Sent Items' and 'Sent'. Since I had virtually nothing in the 'Sent Items' folder, I deleted it completely and made 'Sent' my default folder for all the mail sent from my computer. I have since discovered that 'Sent Items' is actually the default Outlook folder for mail that I've sent, while the 'Sent' folder is a legacy of Gmail.

Nothing wrong so far. Except for the fact that I am now trying to set up some rules so that some mail I send goes into particular folders while other mail is simply saved in the 'Sent' folder. If I go into Outlook options, I need to save mail that doesn't go into a specific folder into the 'Sent Items' folder, which no longer exists.

I've tried using Remo software (trial version) to recover the deleted 'Sent Items' folder (and also the 'Deleted Items' folder, which I also deleted!!), but no luck. And running 'repairs' of Microsoft Office via Programs in the Control Panel has similarly yielded no results.

Is it possible to recover or even recreate a deleted folder from Outlook once it has been completely deleted (i.e. is no longer on the computer??

Florio

nbcaldon · 18 Jan 2018

1) You should normally recover the old pst file from your backup.
2) If you are using gmail and all your messages are still on the server, you can try renaming your pst file so that Outlook cannot find it and then let it create a new one. No guarantees, but it might populate this with the missing messages which you can then move into the old file.

Florio · 18 Jan 2018

Thanks for your reply, nbcaldon.

I still have all my emails, it is just the folder than no longer exists. I'm wondering if a reinstall of Office (or at least Outlook) might be necessary.

Florio

nbcaldon · 18 Jan 2018

Oh, I thought you has lost a folder full of sent emails.

What happens if you right-click the main Outlook folder, select 'New Folder' and name the new folder it 'Sent Items'?

Florio · 18 Jan 2018

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't actually thought of that!! I've just seen that I can create a new folder and change the name, but I'm not sure if it will work as far as the options go, because it will not be the original 'Sent Items' folder. I'll have to do some experimenting.

I'm surprised that Outlook allows people to delete default folders if they cannot be recovered easily (this would have prevented my current problems!!)

I'll let you know how I get on.

Florio