How to Recover Deleted Emails from iCloud Mail?

  Rollins Duke
Rollins Duke   
Published: April 16th, 2025 • 10 Min Read

Have you accidentally and looking for how to recover deleted emails from iCloud Mail? If yes then this guide is for you. This guide provides you details process to easily retrieve deleted iCloud emails via multiple ways. Here you will understand everything you need to know related to this topic including what happens after you delete emails in iCloud, what are the importance to restore and how to do it through simple steps. So if you are ready to know, let’s begin.

iCloud is the cloud service by Apple that helps users store data and sync it across Apple devices. What makes iCloud more useful is easy access to emails! Since it’s cloud storage, Apple Mails gets synced to iCloud, which you can access easily. Many times we accidentally delete the emails that we never wanted to. It can happen with any user and can be problematic.

When you delete an email, it will be relocated in the Trash mailbox and stay for 30 days. After those 30 days, iCloud removes the message permanently. When an email is deleted from Trash or automatically after 30 days, it is gone permanently, it cannot be restored manually using the iCloud interface.

Hence with the emerging technologies, experts have developed various techniques that we can use to recover deleted emails from iCloud. If you are willing to know how to do it, let’s begin reading. If you are planning to restore deleted iCloud emails, then continue read this article.

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Reasons to Retrieve Deleted iCloud Emails

There are many reasons to recover deleted emails from iCloud, and some of these are:

  • Important Work or Business Data – Sometimes, we unintentionally delete important emails that are particularly required for our business and work. However, it becomes critical to get back that data to avoid a major disaster. In this case, use seek for a reliable tool to recover iCloud email that is deleted.
  • Financial Records and Invoices – Our emails often contain some sensitive information related to bills, payments, and transactions. Losing them accidentally can affect budget, tax filing and expense tracking.
  • Virus/Malware Attack – Even though Apple has the best security features for its applications and devices, a virus or malware can sneak into your Mailbox by dodging Apple’s security. The result is the rampant deletion of crucial emails without your knowledge.
  • Accidental Deletion – Whether you or your mailbox’s wrongly configured filter settings delete your emails – accidental deletion is another reason to recover deleted emails from iCloud account.
  • Email Cleaning Applications – Many email cleaning applications are available online that help you clean your mailbox by deleting unwanted emails. But these applications sometimes delete many essential emails, albeit mistakenly, prompting you to restore deleted iCloud emails.

These are some of the reasons how a person can lose an email and why they want to recover them. Therefore there can be several more situations when a user needs to retrieve emails from iCloud. Keep reading the guide to understand these ways to recover deleted iCloud emails.

How to Recover Deleted Emails From iCloud?

You can retrieve deleted iCloud emails using manual or automated methods, and we have discussed both step-by-step below.

Method 1: Get Back Deleted Emails in iCloud

The manual method for getting back deleted emails from iCloud involves recovering them from the Trash folder. It is the only manual method to retrieve emails from iCloud. As discussed above, the deleted emails get stored in the Trash folder for one month, giving you enough time to reinstate them if you skip their instant iCloud email recovery.

The following steps describe the restoration process:

  1. Open the iCloud website on your Apple device and enter your login credentials.
  2. Select the Mail icon from the App list on the home screen.
  3. The iCloud Mail interface will open up. Click Trash from the left-side sidebar.
  4. Select the emails you wish to restore and click the Move To icon from the toolbar.
  5. Select Inbox as the destination to recover deleted emails from iCloud.

You also can follow these steps to restore deleted emails from iCloud from the iCloud mobile and desktop applications and the Mail app on iOS.

Even though the manual method to restore deleted emails looks easy, it is not if you lose access to your email account due to hacking, account suspension, or suspected data breaches. Worst, you can’t restore deleted iCloud emails from the Trash folder after the one-month retention period ends. In that case, using the automated solution is the perfect choice.

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Method 2: Restore Permanently Deleted iCloud Emails Using IMAP

What if you have permanently deleted the emails and still want to recover permanently deleted emails from iCloud through the backup that you have taken previously? In this method, we are going to retrieve deleted iCloud emails through the backup using IMAP. You can take backups for both MBOX and PST if you want to take backups for MBOX files you can use Thunderbird and configure an iCloud account using IMAP and if you want to take backups for PST files then you can use Outlook and configure the iCloud account using IMAP.

In this method, we are going to backup for MBOX file by configuring the iCloud account into Thunderbird. Follow the steps to recover deleted emails from iCloud Mail:

  1. Download and Install the Thunderbird into your device.
  2. Open Thunderbird and go to the menu in the top right corner.
  3. Now select Account settings>>>Account Actions>> Add a Mail account.
  4. Then, enter your iCloud Account information.
  5. Enter your iCloud email address, password, and your name.
  6. Choose IMAP for incoming mail server settings.
  7. Enter IMAP incoming server details.
  • Incoming server: imap.mail.me.com
  • Port: 993
  • SSL: SSL/TLS
  • Authentication: Normal Password
  1. Sync iCloud mail to Thunderbird.
  2. Now, click on local folders and create a new folder.
  3. Right-click on the new folder locally and click on ImportExport Tools NG>>Import MBOX file.
  4. Your MBOX backup file has been started importing.
  5. Once the process is complete you can transfer the email files from local to iCloud inbox.
Note: Once the process is completed right-click to the folder>>copy to>> your iCloud account. Your backup has been completed.

When Manual Method Fails – What to Do?

It is often seen that manual method fails for several reasons to recover deleted emails from iCloud, as they are completed to implement, requires technicalities, consumes a lot of time, requires multiple lengthy steps, etc. However if the manual method does not work for you or seems challenging to you, try using the automated tool that is specially designed for this purpose. We have discussed the widely used tool recommended by most of the professionals to retrieve deleted iCloud emails below.

Method 3: Automated Method to Recover Deleted Emails From iCloud Easily

The manual method to directly recover iCloud email from the Trash folder is the perfect method, but the limitations prevent Apple users from using it all the time. Therefore, an automated tool can restore deleted iCloud emails without any restrictions of the manual method. We will discuss one perfect tool you can use for retrieving deleted emails in iCloud – the BitRecover Cloud Backup and Restore Wizard.

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Features of the Tool

This tool has many features to recover deleted iCloud emails, and some of these are:

  • Restore permanently deleted emails in iCloud from local backup.
  • Moreover, restore desktop MBOX, PST, and EML files to your iCloud account.
  • Extract email attachments from cloud separately in actual formats like DOC, PDF, PPT, XLS, JPG and others.

Mandatory Note: First use the above-mentioned software to backup iCloud emails to multiple standard file extensions (PST, MSG, EML, EMLX, MBOX, OLM). Thereafter, you can easily recover deleted emails from iCloud from the backup.

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Emails from iCloud Backup?

  1. Firstly, open the iCloud email recovery software on your pc and choose a source format to restore according to the download backup.
    start software
  2. Use Select Files or Select Folders button for adding source data in the software.
    add data to restore in icloud
  3. Select the required files and folders from the software panel that you want to restore in iCloud.
    select required folders
  4. Additionally, Use advanced filters options to restore specific emails in the iCloud account.
    filters to restore deleted emails in icloud
  5. Now choose IMAP as the saving option and enter the IMAP details of your iCloud account including Host and POP information.
    recover deleted emails from icloud
  6. Lastly, click the Backup button to recover deleted emails from iCloud from the backup.

Conclusion

We discussed the reasons and solutions to recover deleted emails from iCloud Mail. The reasons we discussed in the blog highlight the importance to retrieve deleted iCloud emails before they get permanently deleted. The only manual method for restoring deleted emails in your iCloud account is to recover them from the Trash folder. Even though this manual method sounds like the perfect option to restore deleted emails, the limitations prevent Apple users from using it all the time.

On the contrary, the automated tool mentioned in the blog allows you to restore deleted iCloud emails from downloaded backup on your desktop in a few minutes without any limitations. What makes this tool special is the facility to export only attachments from emails in file formats like DOC, PDF, JPG, etc.

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FAQs: Recover Deleted Emails From iCloud

Q 1: I mistakenly deleted some critical work emails from my iCloud account. How can I restore them through my iCloud account?

A: You can recover deleted emails from iCloud account by opening iCloud Mail on your iCloud account, going to the Trash folder, selecting the work emails, and clicking the Move To icon from the toolbar. The last thing to do is choose Inbox as your destination.

Q 2: For how long iCloud stores my deleted emails?

A: iCloud stores your deleted emails in the Trash folder for one month. You can’t recover deleted iCloud emails Trash folder after the retention period ends.

Q 3: How to recover permanently deleted emails from iCloud?

A: If you want to retrieve permanently deleted emails from iCloud then you will need to use the above-suggested software. First, create a backup for your iCloud account then restore permanently deleted emails in iCloud from the backup.

Q 4: What are my iCloud account’s IMAP credentials?

A: Go to https://imapsettings.com/ enter your iCloud email address and press Find button to get your IMAP details and easily recover deleted emails from iCloud.