How To Backdate an Email in Outlook?

You’re sending an email with an important attachment—and you’ve realized you need to send it backdated.

Backdating an email in Outlook is easy, Outlook users in a situation can recall the email very easily, and if the recipient uses the same server, it’s normal, is there any option to backdate an email in Outlook?

Every Outlook user encountered a situation where you forgot to send an important email on time to your client or Boss, which creates a question mark on their performance, the reason for the delay might be genuine, but you can’t explain it.

There is a way, you can TRICK your recipient, you can send an email message, and it looks like it was sent (days/hours) before.

There are tons of questions and doubts clouding over your head:

  • How to predate an email?
  • Do you backdate the email to receive on the same date or the current date of your recipient’s inbox?
  • What happens to your own send box?
  • Did you really trick with this process?

Before finding answers to these questions, Let’s understand, how to execute backdate an email in Outlook.

There is one thing common for every sender and recipient time, when the sender creates an email message and sends it, the recipient gets that email in this inbox (same time or a few movements of delay).

If you modify or change your computer window time/date to when you want the mail to have been sent, you changed the normal scenario, which affects the timing of your email.

This process can help you trick your recipient backdate an email in Outlook.

How to make an email look like it was sent earlier?

I personally recommend you, avoid this kind of process, but will help a few employees, who are unable to meet the target on their deadline. So, let’s begin with changing your time zone in the window.

  • Go to Time and Zone on your computer button right-hand side.
  • Click the Right mouse button and, Hit Adjust Time/Date.
adjust time and date
  • The next step is to disable the automatic time set, which opens the manual option, and hit change, from the manual time setup option.
window date and time
  • Change the date and the time dialog box pops up and sets your time and date to when you want the mail to have been delivered. >> Hit Change.
How to backdate an email in Outlook
  • It will change the window period.
  • The next step is to create your email message in outlook, as usual, you don’t have to worry about the date, just hit the Send button.

That’s it:

For instance:

  • I created an Email message on the current date (which I was supposed to send two days back), and send it to my Boss, When I checked my sent box, the date of that email is two days back. [Ref: Snapshot]
Test mail backdate an email on Outlook

Look like everything is set, but the question is How does this email message react to your recipient?

Every challenging work is useless if your recipient understands your strategy. So, I connected with one of my colleagues to give me feedback (I just tried to crosscheck whether it was working or not).

Here is what I get from the colleague Inbox:

My colleague received that in his inbox that email on the same day I send it (i.e. 24th), while opening that specific mail it shows the date 22nd (the exact date which I have modified during sending the mail message). [Refer: Image], the difference is clear.

Here what I get from the colleague Inbox

Now your boss will never blame you or accuse you of any delay in email. The above-mentioned process is a time-consuming process, but at that moment, it is the only way to Edit or Change the Date of Mail in Microsoft Outlook.

Outlook web-based service does not allow the user to twist the date and time. That way you can make an email look like it was sent earlier.

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Amit Bansal

My Name is Amit Bansal, and I am the founder of "Mail Smartly", With a track record of penning in-depth blogs and producing informative YouTube videos, for a deeper dive into solutions and tutorials, visit my YouTube Channel

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