How to recover a very long e-mail that didn't save fully in draft?

[Ant]

Hello.

A client said he was typing a very long e-mail in his USC's Office web
mail, but a very long part of e-mail was lost in the draft. Is there a
way to recover the missing part? Or is it really gone?

I hope to get an answer very soon.
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[VanguardLH]

Ant wrote:

> A client said he was typing a very long e-mail in his USC's Office web
> mail, but a very long part of e-mail was lost in the draft. Is there a
> way to recover the missing part? Or is it really gone?
>
> I hope to get an answer very soon.

Outlook has an auto-save option. I don't know what is the default.
Mine is setup for 2 minutes. Anything entered in a draft during the
2-minute interval will be lost if the user doesn't exit the draft (to
save a copy in the Drafts folder) or hit Ctrl+S. Since there is no
indicator that changes have been saved, I periodically hit Ctrl+S while
composing a draft, especially if there have been a lot of changes.

You don't say HOW the changes were lost. Did the user delete the draft?
If so, and the user didn't use Shift+Del (permanent delete), then it's
in the Deleted Items folder. If the user deleted the draft from the
Deleted Items folder then it is permanently deleted ... sort of. It if
flagged Delete in the message store but won't be physically removed
until the message store gets compacted (which physically deleted the
Delete-flagged messages). See:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/recover-deleted-items-in-outlook-for-windows-49e81f3c-c8f4-4426-a0b9-c0fd751d48ce

I suspect the recovery from server is only possible if the Outlook
client is connecting via Exchange to the Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com
e-mail service (i.e., Microsoft's e-mail service). No mention of which
e-mail provider the user employs for the account under which the draft
was "lost".

For a POP account, delete-flagged items are stored in the .pst file and
physically removed when compacted. Before compaction, you can use a
tool that digs into the PST file to get at the delete-flagged items,
like https://www.securasecurity.org/tag/outlookrecoverytool/($49). I
thought Microsoft had a PST tool to drill inside of it but it's been too
long since I played with it. It wasn't the Inbox Repair Tool but one
that opened the PST database file to show you its records.

If Outlook crashed, he killed it, or the OS hung or crashed, anything he
wrote inside the auto-save interval was not saved hence lost.

Is an old draft still in the Drafts folder? If so, open that old draft
into a new compose window to see if there is a "This is the most recent
version, but you made changes to another copy. Click here to see the
other versions." One of those versions (not necessarily what is listed
as the latest) might have the changes. This might be part of the
auto-save feature, so the other versions would be those at the auto-save
points.

[Ant]

Please reread my original post. I said Outlook's web mail. Not app and
software. It was in Firefox v61.0.2 web browser in Mac OS X Sierra
v10.12.6.

As for the lost partial e-mail, it was just a long part. The other parts
were still there. It sounds like the newer parts weren't saved online.
:(

[VanguardLH]

Outlook.com/Hotmail also has the restored deleted items options, too.
Go into the Deleted Items folder. At the top of the message list pane
there will be a "Recover items deleted from this folder (xxx items)".
That would only apply if "lost" meant the user deleted the draft.

While the webmail client has no auto-save setting, it does auto-save.
After some testing, I found a message appeared or got updated at the
lower right of the compose pane say "Draft saved at <time>". It looks
like the webmail client tests at 1-minute intervals if there have been
any changes. If there were changes, a draft is saved at the next
1-minute poll. If there were no changes, nothing happens (no save) at
the next poll(s). There have to be some change at the 1-minute poll for
the webmail client to save another draft of those changes.

I composed a new message and made some changes in the body. I did not
hit Ctrl+S. I just let the compose window sit there until it notified
me a draft got saved. I then made some more new changes and waited
again until the "Draft saved" message got updated. Then I clicked on
the Drafts folder which blew away the compose pane. I clicked on the
draft copy of the new message. All the changes were in the draft. At
the point when the webmail client does an auto-save (which requires some
changes be made), a new draft copy gets saved. I made some changes to
the draft in the compose window but clicked on the Drafts folder before
the next auto-save. Yep, those non-auto-saved changes were absent.

Unless your user is an extremely fast typist, there won't be much to
lose in one minute. Maybe he was composing in Notepad or somewhere
else, pasted in a bunch of text, but left the compose pane without
hitting Ctrl+S or before the 1-minute auto-save triggered. While the
webmail client has an 1-minute auto-save, it can't do the auto-save
until the next poll for changes, plus changing focus away from the
compose pane or exiting the web browser before the auto-save means
losing whatever changes were made in the last minute.

If your user is somehow making huge changes in the compose pane but
somehow blowing away that pane before the 1-minute auto-save interval,
your user had beeter get used to using Ctrl+S more often. If Ctrl+S
does not cause a save (into Drafts) then your customer will have to hit
the down-arrow in the bottom toolbar to see more actions and select
"Save draft". In my config of Outlook.com (webmail client), I have
keyboard shortcuts disabled. With them enabled, Ctrl+S should be
avialable.

https://www.lifewire.com/outlook-keyboard-shortcuts-1170653

Yep, Ctrl+S does a save into the Drafts folder.

> As for the lost partial e-mail, it was just a long part. The other parts
> were still there. It sounds like the newer parts weren't saved online.
> :(

More information is needed on just how the user "lost" the long part.
Did he/she:

- Click somewhere else in the webmail client to lose the compose pane?
Note: Used to be an option to open the compose pane in its own
window, so users could continue composing while looking elsewhere
in the webmail client. Microsoft took that away. Moving away
from the compose pane means losing all changes not saved since the
prior 1-minute auto-save poll. Changing focus away from the
compose pane is destructive to the health of the unsaved changes
in your draft. Users have complained about the lost of "compose
in new window" option since Sep 2017 with the new GUI.
NOTE: Not a problem in the local client that opens a new compose
window when drafting a new message. You can leave the compose
window open while doing something else inside of the local client.
- Exit the web browser? The webmail client can't do anything when it
isn't loaded, like auto-save any changes since the prior auto-save.
- The web browser crashed?
- The OS hung or crashed or encountered a power outage?

"lost" really doesn't say why the changes didn't get saved. Auto-save
should've saved the changes up to the last 1-minute poll interval.
Changes made before the next auto-save poll will be lost if the compose
pane disappears. Ctrl+S will force an immediate save of changes.
Before taking a bathroom break, getting some coffee, taking a call, or
otherwise pending the compose of a new message, I always hit Ctrl+S to
set a breakpoint in my work.

[Ant]

In microsoft.public.outlook.outlook VanguardLH <V...@nguard.lh> wrote:

> Outlook.com/Hotmail also has the restored deleted items options, too.
> Go into the Deleted Items folder. At the top of the message list pane
> there will be a "Recover items deleted from this folder (xxx items)".
> That would only apply if "lost" meant the user deleted the draft.

Yea, it was never deleted. It was just never saved (ful/recent)ly. :(

Thanks. He is not a person type who will save manually often especially
with hot keys. Interesting that MS disabled that ^S hotkey by default. :(

> > As for the lost partial e-mail, it was just a long part. The other parts
> > were still there. It sounds like the newer parts weren't saved online.
> > :(

> More information is needed on just how the user "lost" the long part.
> Did he/she:

> - Click somewhere else in the webmail client to lose the compose pane?
> Note: Used to be an option to open the compose pane in its own
> window, so users could continue composing while looking elsewhere
> in the webmail client. Microsoft took that away. Moving away
> from the compose pane means losing all changes not saved since the
> prior 1-minute auto-save poll. Changing focus away from the
> compose pane is destructive to the health of the unsaved changes
> in your draft. Users have complained about the lost of "compose
> in new window" option since Sep 2017 with the new GUI.

I think this is the problem since he easily get confused by reopening
the same e-mails in his folders like drafts. :(

> NOTE: Not a problem in the local client that opens a new compose
> window when drafting a new message. You can leave the compose
> window open while doing something else inside of the local client.
> - Exit the web browser? The webmail client can't do anything when it
> isn't loaded, like auto-save any changes since the prior auto-save.

Yes and going to another web browser (he doesn't seem to understand that
you can open a new tab/window too), but doesn't Outlook prompt user that
the e-mail wasn't saved?

> - The web browser crashed?

Nope according to him and Firefox's about:crashes trick.

> - The OS hung or crashed or encountered a power outage?

Nope espeically no power outage on his 2012 MacBook Pro.

> "lost" really doesn't say why the changes didn't get saved. Auto-save
> should've saved the changes up to the last 1-minute poll interval.
> Changes made before the next auto-save poll will be lost if the compose
> pane disappears. Ctrl+S will force an immediate save of changes.
> Before taking a bathroom break, getting some coffee, taking a call, or
> otherwise pending the compose of a new message, I always hit Ctrl+S to
> set a breakpoint in my work.

I wonder if he accidently deleted it by highlighting before the
autosave? Too bad Outloook.com doesn't have a history of autosaves.

[VanguardLH]

Ant wrote:

> Interesting that MS disabled that ^S hotkey by default. :(

Actually the default, I believe, is to have shortcut keys enabled
(probly the Outlook.com shortcut key set). It was *me* that went into
my outlook.com account's config to disable that option. It's been too
long for me to remember why I didn't want any key shortcuts enabled.

> I think this is the problem [changing focus away from compose pane]

> since he easily get confused by reopening the same e-mails in his
> folders like drafts. :(

Users have been complaining for 10 months about Microsoft fucking up the
webmail client's GUI of not opening a new window (new browser instance
or a floating frame) when composing a new message. It is so damn easy
to click somewhere else in the webmail client while composing a new
message. For example, maybe you need to go check something in another
e-mail when writing up the new message.

In Comcast's webmail client, starting a new message opens a new "tab"
(not within the web browser but within their webmail client). You can
bounce around those in-client tabs without losing the Compose tab.
Gmail opens a new frame that you cannot move can make disappear (by
clicking on its title bar), so you can look in other folders without
losing that new draft. Every local e-mail client I've used let me
compose in a new window, so I could navigate around inside the local
client looking up other info.

Only Microsoft, after changing to their new GUI back around Nov 2017,
stopped protecting the compose pane. The "open in new window" option
disappeared to keep the new-message dialog open. Click somewhere else
that change focus away from that pane and it disappears along with any
changes you made since the prior auto-save. They changed the GUI again
(https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/14/17121032/microsoft-outlook-web-redesign-features),
so I have to get used to that one now. There was a Beta toggle to let
me go back to the legacy GUI but no longer. "Resistance is futile" (the
collective Borg multi-voice mantra). Microsoft keeps adding fluff but
not substance.

> doesn't Outlook prompt user that the e-mail wasn't saved?

^^^^^^^
Please use outlook.com when referring to the webmail client. Saying
just Outlook means the local client ran as a program/app on a local
host. Outlook will warn you. Outlook.com cannot, especially with the
loss of opening the compose dialog in its own window or object.

If the web browser is exited, how can any script run in the page no
longer loaded to warn the user about discarding unsaved changes?
Actually, it might be possible by using Javascript's onunload event;
however, that's been so abused that web browsers no longer let the page
present its own content and instead present a standard warning about
navigating away from the web page. That only works when unloading that
document (page) in that tab. Does nothing when you switch tabs, and
might not trigger when you close the web browser or it crashes or you
kill its process.

> I wonder if he accidently deleted it by highlighting before the
> autosave?

The Send and Discard buttons in outlook.com's (webmail client's) compose
pane are right next to each other; however, when using the Discard
button, there is a prompt about losing unsaved changes.

I just did another test with the compose pane. I created a new message,
added some content, and clicked on one of the folders. My changes,
without prompt, got saved in the copy in the Drafts folder. I did this
several times where I added content and immediately clicked somewhere
else hoping to avoid the auto-save timer. The changes got saved without
prompt.

I then added new content and tried to close the tab to deliberately lose
any changes before an auto-save. The web browser's dialog appeared
asking if I wanted to leave the page, so their webmail client is using
Javascript's onunload event to prevent accidentally leaving the page and
losing changed content. Hmm, now I'm not sure how I managed before to
lose changes. Clicking somewhere else makes the compose pane disappear
but my changes got saved. There's auto-save (perhaps to protect losing
all changes due to the web browser crashing or getting killed). When I
try to unload the tab after making changes in the compose tab, I get the
unload event trigging a prompt asking if I really want to leave the
page. If I make changes and try to exit the web browser, that unload
event triggers again asking if I want to actually leave the site (which
means changes wouldn't get saved).

Obviously if the web browser crashed then it cannot run the Javascript
triggered by the unload event. Adblockers work by corrupting web pages,
so it's possible the OP is using an adblocker or other content blocker
that obviates the Javascripted protections in that webmail client. When
I try to leave the page (unload its tab or exit the web browser) and get
the unload alert, there is an option to "Prevent this page from creating
additional dialogs". That might later allow leaving the changed page
without the warning. I never enable that option. I suspect if the user
enables the option, it becomes a site preferences which means having to
delete that site's stored preferences in the web browser to get the
popup alert the next time you leave (unload) the page with unsaved
changes.

Seems a bit difficult to accidentally lose the changes with the timed
auto-save, change-of-focus auto-save, and page unload alert. You need
to find out what the user did that "lost" his changes. Maybe the user
thinks the web browser is a local e-mail client.

> Too bad Outloook.com doesn't have a history of autosaves.

Draft history (versioning) is a feature in the local e-mail client (MS
Outlook), not in their webmail client (outlook.com) whether free or
paid. Hotmail had previous versions of drafts. Yet another feature
missing in Microsoft's new GUIs (along with loss of option to open a
draft in its own window).

With auto-save at 1-minute intervals, there could be a hell of a lot of
draft versions. The longer the draft was open in the compose pane, and
with any little change, like just 1 character, the auto-save would
result in yet another version of the draft. Drafts are synchronized to
the local e-mail client (MS Outlook when using Exchange) but all that
versioning would require lots of traffic albeit small. While they give
a generous disk quota, they don't want to be storing all that draft
history along with every version of a draft.

In their webmail client, when a draft gets saved, it overwrites any
existing one. There is only one copy of the draft. No versioning. For
example, a user could cut out a huge section of their long e-mail,
realize they need it back, but auto-save (timed or changing focus)
already save the modified copy with all the omitted content. When
cutting out a big section of content from a draft currently being
edited, use Shift+Del instead of Del. Shift+Del will copy the
highlighting content into the clipboard before cutting it from the
document.

However, if you paste something else into the Windows clipboard then you
lose the clipboard's prior contents. That's why I use a clipboard
manager with history (e.g., Clipmate although there are free ones and
other paid ones). In fact, history is what makes it possible for me to
save multiple input fields in a page before clicking on Submit or moving
off and going back to that page: all the content I had put into those
fields can be retrieved from the clipboard manager's history.

[Ant]

In microsoft.public.outlook.outlook VanguardLH <V...@nguard.lh> wrote:

> Ant wrote:

> > Interesting that MS disabled that ^S hotkey by default. :(

> Actually the default, I believe, is to have shortcut keys enabled
> (probly the Outlook.com shortcut key set). It was *me* that went into
> my outlook.com account's config to disable that option. It's been too
> long for me to remember why I didn't want any key shortcuts enabled.

> > I think this is the problem [changing focus away from compose pane]
> > since he easily get confused by reopening the same e-mails in his
> > folders like drafts. :(

> Users have been complaining for 10 months about Microsoft fucking up the
> webmail client's GUI of not opening a new window (new browser instance
> or a floating frame) when composing a new message. It is so damn easy
> to click somewhere else in the webmail client while composing a new
> message. For example, maybe you need to go check something in another
> e-mail when writing up the new message.

Augh. I am pretty sure this is the cause since he keeps opening that
opened e-mail in draft folder instead of his already opened draft e-mail
window in USC's Office Outlook's webmail. Maybe it is getting messed up
in autosaving. :( Stupid MS. Have there been any official bug reports of
this?

...
> > Too bad Outlook.com doesn't have a history of autosaves.

> Draft history (versioning) is a feature in the local e-mail client (MS
> Outlook), not in their webmail client (outlook.com) whether free or
> paid. Hotmail had previous versions of drafts. Yet another feature
> missing in Microsoft's new GUIs (along with loss of option to open a
> draft in its own window).

Augh, MS took that out? Geez!
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