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Pafcboy

Q: Where did my important e-mails go?

I have been planning a holiday to California and I have made numerous hotel and ticket bookings using my virgin.com email address via my IPAD 2. When I've received the booking confirmations, I've stored them in a subfolder in my IPAD2 titled "California 2015". I made these bookings over a period of time starting more than 6 months ago and cannot remember precisely what hotels and attractions I've booked as I was relying on the confirmation replies. I was planning to draw up my itinerary soon.

 

I had another folder which I stored important emails for another trip to Scotland which I've just returned from. Just before I left for Scotland I wanted to check something in the Scotland sub folder. This would have been about 10 days ago. To my utter shock I opened the folder and before my eyes all the stored e-mails disappeared. I saw them then they were gone and my folder was empty. I could just about manage without those e-mails.

 

I hoped my California confirmation e-mails were safe, as I've kept no other record of my bookings, believing I could rely on the confirmations in my sub folder, but to my horror on the same day clicking on that folder all those appeared then rolled up the screen and disappeared too; leaving the folder empty. I was in complete shock and I am now panicking if I'll ever get these important e-mails back? I'm completely lost without them.

 

I have tried deleting my Virgin E mail account from my iPad2 and then adding it afresh but that hasn't worked. I've searched every folder on my IPAD (yes trash folders et al) to no avail. I've accessed webmail to see if I can recover them from there - nothing.

 

This is an IMAP account.

 

I am desperate for help in recovering my e-mails. Can anyone help me please? I did not back up to icloud. They are gone from my MAC which is a second machine I receive e-mails on too.

 

Thanks in advance.

iPod touch, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 5:17 AM

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Q: Where did my important e-mails go?

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  • by Michael Black,

    Michael Black Michael Black Apr 13, 2015 6:49 AM in response to Pafcboy
    Level 7 (24,600 points)
    Apr 13, 2015 6:49 AM in response to Pafcboy

    Since it is IMAP and you say even logging directly into your Virgin email in a browser does not show them, it sounds like an issue on the email server side. If they are not actually on the server, then there is no way to get them back on any device accessing that server. Have you contacted Virgin support at all?  Does your email have any setting to auto-purge Mail after some period of time?  Did your account reach some storage limit imposed by the provider?

     

    IMAP Mail is stored on the provider's servers, not on your device. If you do not see the messages when logged directly into your account via their web portal, that indicates the messages are not on their server. I'd get in touch with the service provider and quickly. They may be able to recover them for you, but waiting will not help those chances.