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Avoid Accidentally Sending Messages in Outlook [How to]
Use the Delay Delivery feature to prevent accidental message sending
5 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Sometimes when you write an email, you can send it by mistake, which is why many want to know how to avoid accidentally sending messages in Outlook.
Sending an email by accident will make you look unprofessional, and it can lead to an unintentional data leak, so it’s crucial to ensure that your emails reach the right person every time, and today we’re going to show you how to do that.
What happens if you accidentally send an email to the wrong person?
How do I stop Outlook from accidentally sending emails?
Here are a few tips that you can use to prevent yourself from sending emails by accident:
1. Change Outlook settings
Many users have sent unfinished mail by accidentally using this keyboard shortcut, but with it disabled, you won’t ever send an email by accident.
This isn’t the most reliable method since it will only work if you’re using the shortcut above.
Some users reported a different issue, and they can’tcan’t send an email from Outlook.
2. Change advanced options
By disabling this feature, emails in Outbox won’t be sent automatically as soon as you connect, instead, they will wait for the scheduled send and receive session.
In case this method doesn’t work, check if yourOutlook emails are stuck in outbox.
3. Use the Delay Delivery feature
After doing that, your messages will remain in the Outbox folder until the specified time. After that, they will be sent automatically.
This gives you enough time to review them and ensure your messages look perfect before sending them.
4. Create a rule to delay messages
After doing that, all your email messages will be stored in your Outbox for several minutes before being sent.
Of course, you can bypass this rule by usingSend Immediatelyoption.
To learn more about rules, we have a great guide on how tocheck rules in Outlook, so be sure to visit it.
Do keep in mind that outlook has its issues, and many reporter thatemails have disappeared in Outlook, but we have a guide that can help with that.
Does Outlook have an undo send?
Yes, this feature is available, but it’s not enabled by default. You can enable it by doing the following:
Keep in mind that the maximum value for Undo send is 10 seconds, and after that, you won’t be able to undo any sent emails.
As you can see, it’s pretty easy to avoid accidentally sending messages in Outlook, and we hope our solutions helped you with that.
Besides these solutions, there are paid add-ons that can help you with this, so you might want to consider them as well.
Security should be your priority when sending emails, and we have a great guide on how tosend secure emails in Outlook, so be sure not to miss it.
What methods do you use to prevent accidental email sending? Let us know in the comments section below.
More about the topics:Outlook Guides
Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He’s a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology.
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.
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Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s specialized in Windows errors & software issues.