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How do I reopen emails that I had open when Outlook closed?

Maggie Swan 0 Reputation points
2026-06-04T13:37:16.0833333+00:00

I had a bunch of emails open that I needed to work on but I had to force restart my computer. Is there anyway to reopen all those emails that I had open? The box that normally prompts this did not show up.

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For business
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  1. Demi-N 17,400 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-06-04T14:24:31.8933333+00:00

    Hello @Maggie Swan,

    Thank you for your question, and I completely understand how frustrating this situation must be, especially when you had several emails open that you were actively working on.

    Just to confirm, is my understanding correct that you already have the option “Ask me if I want to reopen previous items” enabled, but the prompt to reopen those items did not appear after restarting Outlook?

    User's image

    If that is the case, I’m really sorry for the inconvenience. In New Outlook, this feature depends on whether the application is able to save the state of open (pop-out) windows into its temporary cache before closing. In scenarios such as a forced restart or unexpected shutdown, Outlook may not have enough time to store that session information, which results in the prompt not appearing when you reopen the app.

    As a small tip, if any of those emails were being actively written or replied to, there is still a chance you might find them in your Drafts folder. While this may not restore everything exactly as before, it can sometimes help recover work that was in progress.

    While I realize this may not be the expected behavior, I truly appreciate your patience and understanding with this, as the feature doesn’t always apply in every scenario.

    Warm regards,

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-06-04T13:37:29.4433333+00:00

    Outlook can prompt to reopen items from the last session, but this prompt can sometimes fail to appear, especially around the issue described for Outlook builds starting with Version 2306 (Build 16529.20154). When that happens, there is no supported way to automatically reopen exactly the same set of messages that were open before the crash.

    For classic Outlook, the behavior is controlled by the “Reopen previous items” feature. When available, it is configured under:

    1. File → Options → General → Start up options → “Ask me if I want to restore previous items”.
    2. If the option is missing and Outlook repeatedly shows or fails to show the prompt, the behavior can be influenced via the registry value:
      • Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences
      • DWORD: ReopenWindowsOption
      • Values:
        • 1 = Never reopen previous items
        • 0 = Ask whether to reopen items
        • 2 = Always reopen previous items

    However, if Outlook has already restarted without the prompt and without restoring those windows, there is no built-in recovery mechanism to reconstruct that exact set of open emails. The only available options are to reopen the needed messages manually from the mailbox folders.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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