Microsoft Defender Quarantine - Release and delete emails

Please note: You can also release or block emails directly from a Quarantine notification email message. 

Review list of emails that have been quarantined. Click the Preview button to see the contents of an email. 

The Preview panel will show the contents of an email so you can verify if it's legitimate, spam or phishing. When finished, click the X in the top right corner to close the panel and return to quarantine. 

Click the checkbox next to an email you'd like to release and click the release checkmark icon. 

Alternatively, if you know it's unsafe or spam, you can click the Delete icon, but you don't have to take action on those emails. Anything left in Quarantine will be deleted after 30 days.  

This will show more information about the email and the sender. If you determine it's safe, click Release email. 

Confirm that you'd like to Release message to your mailbox.

The email's Release Status will change to Released. Select the email and click the delete icon to remove the message from your quarantine list. 

Please note: The deleted items folder retention period is 30 days. After that, messages are automatically removed from the folder. Items that have been automatically removed from the Deleted Items folder are retained for 30 days before being permanently deleted.