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I just pressed the discard button on a long email draft I was editing. Where can I find it now? I tried to search in the bin folder, but it's not there...

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  • Try looking in the draft folder
    – Jacob Jan Tuinstra
    Apr 25, 2013 at 10:51
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    @JacobJanTuinstra, it disappeared from the draft folder after I pressed the discard button (by mistake obviously).
    – Grzenio
    Apr 25, 2013 at 11:36
  • Then it's out of our hands. Now you need to focus on what you wanted to write....=)
    – Jacob Jan Tuinstra
    Apr 25, 2013 at 11:39
  • and have a form recovery tool like Lazarus :) chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lazarus-form-recovery/…
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    Apr 25, 2013 at 16:31
  • @Sathya - Yes, but Lazarus works in Chrome on PC, while, I have accidentally deleted a draft on an Android phone, in Gmail App. Isn't any tool to recover it? I mean, by connecting the phone to the computer?
    – Cristiana Nicolae
    Oct 26, 2015 at 22:55

2 Answers 2

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As soon as you've (accidentally) hit the discard button you have the option to undo discard in the alert that appears at the top of the page. Click that! Or hit z (undo last action) if you have keyboard shortcuts enabled.

Your message has been discarded. Undo discard

However, as soon as you start to navigate around Gmail this alert disappears and your draft is gone for good it seems. (The keyboard shortcut z no longer works either.)

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    Yeah, it seems that way. Shame really, they could keep it in Trash for a few days.
    – Grzenio
    Apr 26, 2013 at 8:38
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    super annoying! There should be a confirmation, or a way to reverse it...one or the other!
    – A.M.
    Jul 15, 2013 at 0:22
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    This question has had 30,000 views in a year. You might expect that the alleged geniuses at Google could figure out that they are not doing it right, but they probably think they know what's best.
    – sdenham
    Feb 24, 2015 at 2:56
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    I had pressed "discard" on a draft on Gmail for iOS, not focused 100% clearly, thinking I was discarding my current edit, not the entire draft. Now it's gone gone gone. I didn't see a momentary undo option in this app, so it's gone for good. Hear our cry, Google/Gmail!
    – TPoy
    Aug 5, 2016 at 16:22
  • @TPoy You're right. On iOS/iPad, when closing an email you are editing ("draft" or "new" email) you get the option to "Discard" or "Save". Tapping "Discard" immediately discards that email with no option to "Undo". If this was a "new" email then there is no message at all, however, if it was a "draft" email I see a message at the bottom... "Your draft has been discarded x" (not "undo" option). You can't close it without saving. Only when "deleting" (trash icon) emails (inc. drafts) do you get the option to "Undo" (message at the bottom of the screen).
    – MrWhite
    Aug 5, 2016 at 19:11
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You can't find it. Once you click that discard button it is gone. Gmail doesn't even move it to Trash.

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