Have you ever sent an email in a hurry and wanted to recall it? Maybe the message was incomplete or contained incorrect information. It could also be something worse when you rashly dispatched an email written in an agitated state of mind and regret your action immediately afterwards. Is there a way to stop or cancel an email you have sent?
Quick answer – NO! Once an email has been sent from the Outbox, you just don’t have any control over it. The email message is now roaming the back alleys of the Internet and on its way to the recipient.
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However, if it’s still lying in the outbound folder, you can selectively delete it. In other words, if the email program or service you use holds the email message in an Outbox (or similar) folder, you may have a chance to get hold of it before it’s dispatched. Else, there is no way.
Web-based email accounts – cannot stop or cancel an email that has been sent unless…
Most of us use a web-based email account from popular services like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail. An email sent from these accounts will immediately move out of your account and head off to the recipient. There is just no way to stop or cancel it. Gmail, however, does have an option which can delay the email by 5 seconds. However, this feature needs to be installed on your account first. This Undo Send Gmail labs feature has been developed by Yuzo F and can be installed on your email account via “Settings” -> “Labs“.
The things is, email messaging is almost instantaneous; the moment you click on the “Send” button the email is sent off from your account and a copy of it stored in the Sent Items (or equivalent) folder. [Technically, the web browser software needs to tell the server that the sent button has been clicked by you and this may take a few seconds depending on your internet connection]
The Outbox on email programs may help you stop the email
Email programs such as Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, have an Outbox that holds your email before it’s sent. However, this happens only when you select the “Send later” option. Thus, if you are working from an email program and have selected this option, you can open the Outbox folder and delete the email from there.
Email programs, as you probably might know, allow you to compose and reply to messages even when you are not connected to the web. Such emails are placed in the Outbox and are sent only when an active internet connection is available. Then again, if the email has been sent from the Outbox, there is no way to stop or cancel it.
Final note: I’m sorry for your troubles but there is little hope to stop or cancel an email which has already been sent because that’s the nature of this technology.
