Lost draft email

Dom 36

Hello, I had a list of books I have read over several years as a draft email. I looked at the email today and see it is completely blank. I have done nothing. The draft email (with the same subject) remains in my draft folder.
Is there any way to recover this? I did nothing to delete the content. It just disappeared.
This is content of some sentimental value and I'd love to recover it.

PetraB 16 Reputation points

2021-06-30T21:00:19.3+00:00

Hey there. I just had this happen today! Was your issue ever resolved? My draft, like yours, has the subject matter but says no content. Arghhh
Gevaert, S. (Stefan) 6 Reputation points

2021-07-09T08:38:23.647+00:00

I've had the exact same issue yesterday twice! I'm on a Macbook, it happened on my Desktop Mail but the content has also disappeared on web mail, has not been archived or deleted accidentally (I checked on Web Mail).

Extremely frustrating when composing important emails. The emails themselves are still there with the right date and subject and people CCd, but all content is gone.
Zarin Tasnim Isra 6 Reputation points

2021-08-11T05:40:08.087+00:00

Almost a year later but this happened to me today!! I had been writing stuff in this draft for years and today everything except the subject line is gone! I know for a fact I haven't done anything. This is extremely frustrating.
Andy Twidle 6 Reputation points

2021-08-13T05:03:05.91+00:00

Just suffered this today. Saved a draft, closed the window and when I re-opened it the content (including signature) was gone. Most frustrating.
Bill Swersey 1 Reputation point

2021-09-29T02:43:59.21+00:00

Same here. Worked on a draft for a while but decided to wait until the morning to send it. When I looked in the morning the email body was blank.

Not the first time this has happened, but the first time in a while.
Chris Andruszko 1 Reputation point

2022-02-24T15:33:23.367+00:00

Has there been ANY update to this situation AT ALL??? I just lost a draft that had all the files paths to over 200 projects I had worked on over the past 2.5 years. This was a crucial document to me and today it's completely BLANK. The Subject line is filled out still, but the contents are completely empty. I did not do this. This is an error with Outlook and considering how devastating of a glitch this is (and apparently common), you'd think they would have resolved this by now. I've never experienced anything like this with any other mailing service.
Dariusz Piekarski 6 Reputation points

2022-04-01T07:36:16.89+00:00

This happened again to me!
How is even possible that the basic function as a draft might not work well?!

I am using the MSoffice on iMac (CAtalina 10.15.7) via desktop and on MacBook pro (Mojave 10.14.6) via webmail.
If there is anything I could do to restore it, please let me know.
This must be a serious bag since I am also very often losing the updated information for MS Office packages. When I open on a macbook a doc or excel file created on iMac and work on it, save it and open it another dayon iMAC, very often the files are not updated and since the files were saved on the external disk, the updated information on macbook is lost!! The only solution I found right now is to saved it with a different name. When I forget about it I can loose lots of time - very annoying!
Please, MSOffice teams, these are serious bugs/issues that should be fixed.

Kind regards,

Darek
Dhirendra Singh Jodha 1 Reputation point

2022-08-24T13:57:20.9+00:00

Can someone sort this out? today I lost very important information email which had data saved from many years? is there any way to recover the content?
W Baron 0 Reputation points

2023-06-15T01:14:18.2766667+00:00

I just had the same thing happen too. I had saved a draft email on my PC, and later opened it in Outlook for android. It was blank and when I later went back to my PC it was blank there too.

My suspicion is that Outlook failed to load the content on android, and auto-save kicked in on the blank email wiping everything.

Needless to say that shouldn't happen, hours of work was lost despite frequent saving.
TP 0 Reputation points

2023-06-26T03:38:11.18+00:00

Same problem. My fix was to search in the main search field for a keyword from the lost draft. Magically, it appeared in the search results.

11 answers

Maria Olmedo Palomeque 21 Reputation points

2021-08-09T12:07:11.95+00:00

This happens to me as well....I save drafts to send later in order to don't bother my team with emails after work hours. EVERYTIME I go into the mobile application and load my draft, THE DRAFT IS EMPTY. This causes unnecessary waste of time and it's extremely annoying.
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John Walker 16 Reputation points

2021-09-09T16:26:48.843+00:00

I have exactly the same issue as everyone above. Only using Outlook web app via browser (Edge and Safari; same results) as our corporate security policy doesn’t allow using the off-web app.

Composing an email in the browser page seems to have maybe a 5-minute time limit; if I exceed this the window closes and my content disappears. Primal scream!

The only thing saved to Drafts folder is the subject line. If I could at least extend the composition time it would help. Workaround for now is to write in notepad or notes.
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Dariusz Piekarski 6 Reputation points

2022-04-01T07:41:52.183+00:00

Still not solved, not answered. Is there anything we could do to restore it, please let us know.
How is even possible that the basic function as a draft might not work well?!

I am using the MSOffice on iMac (Catalina 10.15.7) via desktop and on MacBook pro (Mojave 10.14.6) via webmail.

Problems with updated files on thwo different systems I do have also with MS Office packages. When I open on a MacBook a doc or excel file created on iMac and work on it, save it and open it another day on iMAC, very often the files are not updated and since the files were saved on the external disk, the updated information on macbook is lost because somehow the iMAC old file seems to be more relevant, newer, or whatever the reason! The only solution I found right now is to save it with a different name, but sometimes I am forgeting doing it and even a week of work can be lost - this is unacceptable.
Please, MS Office teams, these are serious bugs/issues that should be fixed.
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Chris Lewis 6 Reputation points

2022-06-01T22:51:31.35+00:00

I've also experienced the same problem: created draft in latest desktop Outlook, did 'Save' numerous times during the hour of so I've been composing the draft email. Closed the draft email. Now when I look for it, it is completely missing!! I've searched the Draft folder and all folders to no avail. It is also not in the archive and not in webmail either. This is not the first time this has happened in the past year and is extremely aggravating. Please investigate this serious bug. How can anyone have any confidence in the software if the 'save' doesn't even work?
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Chris Lewis 6 Reputation points

2022-06-01T22:55:45.42+00:00

Note: The problem I described above is a random issue. I did a test shortly after the lost draft episode by creating a short test email which I 'saved' and it appeared in the draft folder. Very frustrating.

Williams, David 1 Reputation point

2022-08-24T21:25:46.677+00:00

I had an attachment on my draft and was able to recover it by searching for attachments on e-mails...otherwise I was F'ed. Good Luck!
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Manu Philip 16,986 Reputation points MVP

2020-10-17T15:54:07.407+00:00
Check webmail and see if you are finding the expected draft message there

Check if you have set any archive policy at exchange or outlook which caused the archival of the email to a different location

Check deleted items folder for the draft. Recover deleted items feature also helps to restore the recently emptied mail from deleted items folder
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Lost draft email

Kind regards,

11 answers