How to Recover Deleted Emails from Mac Mail?

Amy Dennis

Apr 14, 2025 • Filed to: Recover Emails • Proven solutions

If you use the Mail app on your Mac, then you might already know how resourceful it can be. Though, there are times when users end up deleting their messages by mistake or lose them due to any other reason. While it might seem like a complicated situation, you can recover deleted Mac emails if you want. To help you recover deleted emails from your account on Mac, I have come up with this detailed guide. Read on and learn how to recover deleted emails from Mac’s Mail app in 4 ways right here!

Part 1: Is it Possible to Retrieve Your Deleted Emails on Mac?

Before we discuss how to recover permanently deleted emails on Mac, it is important to cover some basics. Ideally, Mac Mail is a desktop-based email management app that can be configured via POP, IMAP, or Exchange protocols. You can sync multiple email accounts like iCloud, Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL, and access them on your Mac.

In nutshell, yes – it is possible to recover deleted Mac emails, but you would only get positive results under the following scenarios.

• Firstly, check the Trash in your Mac Mail app where your emails are stored temporarily.
• If not, then look for a previous backup (via Time Machine or any other source) where your mails could be present.
• You can also sync your emails back from iCloud or another mailing service where they could be stored.
• If nothing else works, then use a data recovery application that would scan your Mac’s local storage and recover deleted Mac emails.

You may also want to read: Effective Methods to Fix Mac Mail Not Loading Content

Part 2: How to Recover Deleted Mac Emails?

If you have just deleted your emails from your Inbox, then you can easily get them back. This is because deleted emails from the Mac Mail are first moved to the Trash folder where they are stored on a temporary basis. Therefore, before you take any drastic measures, take the following steps to recover deleted Mac emails.

Step 1. To learn how to recover deleted emails on Mac Mail, just open the application and go to its Menu > View > Show Deleted Emails.

Step 2. Alternatively, you can launch the Mail app on your Mac and just go to the “Trash” folder from the sidebar.

Step 3. This will display all the recently deleted emails on the Mail app. You can now select any email of your choice, right-click, and choose to move your emails back to the Inbox.

Part 3: How to Recover Permanently Deleted Emails on Mac?

If you have deleted your Mac mails from the Trash as well, then you would have to take some extra measures to get them back. A while back, I encountered a similar issue and learned how do I recover deleted emails on Mac in the following way.

Method 1: Recover Deleted Mac Emails from a Backup

Ideally, all the Windows and Mac users are recommended to maintain a timely backup of their data. Mostly, Mac users take the assistance of Time Machine to backup and restore their files. Therefore, if you also have a prior backup of your data, then you can learn how to recover permanently deleted emails on Mac in the following way:

Step 1. To begin with, just launch the Mail app on your Mac and connect the Time Machine backup drive to the system.

Step 2. Most likely, the Time Machine app would automatically be launched. If not, go to the Time Machine backup from the Spotlight or launch it from Mac’s System Preferences > Time Machine.

Step 3. As the Time Machine interface would be launched, you can use the scrolling options from the side to search for your deleted emails. Once you find them, select them, and click on the “Restore” button to get them back.

Method 2: Recover Deleted Mac Emails from Cloud

As I have mentioned above, the Mail app on Mac only syncs a third-party account on our system. While your mails could be deleted from your Mac storage, they might still be there on the cloud storage of iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, or any other service.

Therefore, to recover deleted Mac emails, you need to visit the respective service’s website. Let’s consider that you have synced your iCloud emails on Mac. In this case, you can learn how to recover deleted emails from Mac’s Mail app in the following way:

Step 1. To recover your emails, you can just visit the official website of iCloud and open the Mail interface.

Step 2. Now, from the sidebar, go to the Trash folder where you can view all the deleted emails in iCloud.

Step 3. To recover your data, just select the emails of your choice, and click on the Move option from the toolbar. This will let you move your deleted emails to the iCloud Inbox or any other folder.

Similarly, you can also go to Gmail, Outlook, AOL, Yahoo, or any other email client to recover your deleted emails.

Method 3: Recover Deleted Mac Emails from the Local Storage

Since the Mail app in Mac stores the downloaded emails on the local storage, you can also use a recovery tool to get them back. For instance, you can try Recoverit Data Recovery that can help you get back your lost photos, videos, attachments, emails, zipped files, and so much more.

You can select a location to scan or look for lost emails from the entire Mac drive as well. Since Recoverit is extremely easy to learn, you won’t encounter any issue recovering your deleted Mac emails. To learn how to recover permanently deleted emails on Mac via Recoverit, follow this process:

Step 1: Select a location to scan

At first, you can just launch Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer and select a location to scan. You can select the entire drive, a partition, or even any folder. There is also an option to connect an external device and select it instead.

Step 2: Wait for Recoverit to complete the scan

As you would click on the “Start” button, Recoverit Data Recovery would try to extract the lost and deleted emails from the selected location. You can track the progress from an on-screen indicator or even halt it in between.

Step 3: Recover your deleted Mac emails

Once the recovery process is over, you can find your lost emails by using the inbuilt search option or the native filters of Recoverit. It will already list your data under different categories on the side.

Furthermore, you can even preview your emails, photos, videos, audios, documents, etc. on the native interface of Recoverit. You can now select what you wish to get back, click on the “Recover” button, and save your files anywhere you like.

Part 4: How to Recover a Deleted Mac Mail Account?

One of the best things about the Mail app in Mac is that you can sync multiple third-party accounts in a single place. Even if you have deleted your account from the Mail app, you can still retrieve it. To recover a deleted email account on the Mac Mail app, you can just add it back in the following way.

Step 1. Firstly, just launch the Mail app on your Mac and go to its Menu > Mail > New Account to add your existing account.

Step 2. This will provide a list of various accounts like Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc. that you can add. Simply select the email client of your choice to proceed.

Step 3. Now, you can enter the credentials (email ID and password) of the account and select how you wish to sync it with the app.

After when the account is added, you can recover all emails on the Mail app of your Mac easily.

I’m sure that after following this post, you would be able to recover deleted Mac emails like a pro. In this guide, I have come up with a tried and tested experience on how do I recover deleted emails on Mac. If you want to learn how to recover permanently deleted emails on Mac, then you can try Recoverit Data Recovery. I would recommend keeping Recoverit handy as it can help you get back your lost, deleted, or inaccessible content of all kinds instantly.