Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
GMail added the ability to "undo" a send. I'll look at how it works, and why it's not what people expect.
I heard that Google added an "undo" to their send button. How can that work? I thought you said that once you send an email it's out of your control?
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(This is anticipatory - I expect people to be asking.)
I stand by that statement: GMail's "undo send" is not really an "undo" at all. It's certainly helpful, but it's not what you might think.
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The undo send feature, which you'll find in Settings -> Labs, is really more like a "delay before sending" feature. When enabled, it "holds on" to your email for 5 seconds before the email is really sent.
5 seconds.
That's all the time you have to rethink your send.
After that time has elapsed, there is no undo.
It works because GMail doesn't actually send your mail for 5 seconds. They're holding on to it before sending it, in case you want to change your mind.
This is actually very similar to a technique mentioned by Outlook users, where you can set up a rule to delay the send of a message by some amount of time. Change your mind within that time, and you can stop Outlook from sending your message.
But I do have to reiterate, once your email has actually been sent, there's no way to "undo" it; there's no way to get it back.
(OK, a caveat for the pedants: some corporate email systems - where everyone is on the same mail system such as Microsoft Exchange - do, sometimes, have the ability for a true "remove it from the recipient's inbox" undo between users on the same system. But this is not available for internet email or for the average user on the internet.)
So certainly, enable the feature - it's kinda cool, and has already saved several people from sending erroneous or incomplete messages. But realize what it is, and what it is not.
Think before you send. No matter what.
Article C3682 - March 21, 2009
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
@Anand
See if you have the flash uploader enabled. If you do, you'll need to have the flash plugin installed in your browser, which may be your problem.
Posted by: will at March 30, 2009 7:45 AMmake this experiment :
Send an email to yourself
you will see appear a new email in your inbox
undo sending ... the email will disappear ...
do the same experiment with two windows (one sending, the other one receiving) you will be able to see the content of the email and to undo sending in the meanwhile ...
so Gmail is doing some tricky stuff when it comes to google's user ?
Posted by: azz at February 23, 2010 3:39 AMHi, Actually, someone was threatening me that he would complain about me to POLICE OR ANY OTHER SECURITY AGENCY. And, he would find my address from the emails I sent to him. We exchanged a couple of mails through Gmail. So, I have deleted my gmail account. Now, can anyone locate my correct address or Google would still keep my record of emails and locate my address?
What Can People Tell From My IP Address
Can I Get Someone's Name and Address From Their IP Address?
22-Oct-2011
Hi, Thanks for your reply. But, I want to know that even if I have closed my Gmail account, can they (cyber police or google ) still track my home address or some other information to reach me?
23-Oct-2011
@Orthills
Posted by: Mark J at October 23, 2011 12:20 AMClosing an email account wouldn't remove the old emails from Google's servers, so it would have no effect on the traceability of your emails.