Old AOL emails in iCloud how do I get them back in my AOL account

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Level 1

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Old AOL emails in iCloud how do I get them back in my AOL account

A friend thought she lost all her old AOL emails that were in her inbox dating back to 2013.

I was helping her set up her new iPad mini today and while looking at what was taking up space in her iCloud, I found all of her old emails.

When I'm in her iCloud email they don't show up in her inbox but if I do a search for say the letter a, all of her old emails that begin with the letter a show up all the way back to 2013.

How can I move them back from the iCloud email to her AOL email?

iPad mini, iOS 9

Posted on Feb 15, 2020 9:13 PM

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Answer 1

i_rina

Community Specialist

Feb 18, 2020 12:27 PM in response to myejag

Hey myejag,

Thanks for your question about missing email messages that were located when searching on a device. I'd be glad to see how I can help.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, tell me more about these emails. For example, you mentioned that your friend thought they were lost. Was this because they were deleted, because she lost access to that AOL account, or for another reason?

Did she ever set up this account on any of her Apple devices previously. and if so, can she see the account listed in Settings > Passwords & Accounts? If so, have her tap on that and see if the Mail option is turned on. If it is there but it is turned off, you might want to have her turn it on, which would bring in any outstanding mail from her AOL account and may regrant access to messages that aren't presently in the inbox but were previously.

Let me know what you find out.

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Answer 2

sterling r

Community Specialist

Feb 20, 2020 12:29 PM in response to myejag

Hi myejag,

You've mentioned a few times that they able to be located when searching. Is this within the Mail app on her iPhone? If so, when you find them and tap on them, can they be opened? If so, you should be able to then forward them to the AOL address, but they won't remain in chronological order, as they'll show as received on the current date rather than the previous date. After forwarding them, you can then delete them from the iPhone, and that should clear up space. Keep in mind though that generally, emails don't take up much space, unless they have attachments such as photos or videos.

Hopefully this helps.

Be well.

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Answer 3

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Feb 19, 2020 12:55 PM in response to myejag

Hello myejag,

So it sounds like this account was set up on the iPad in the manner mentioned in the precious reply. Were you able to check on that? This would just help solidify if your friend is using the Mail app or another email app to view her mail. This is important as generally non-iCloud email accounts won't have their messages stored in iCloud, but they may appear within the Mail app with other accounts that are set up on the device, such as an iCloud account.

Also, have you had your friend check the webmail page of their email service provider? That would be a good place to start to see if those older messages appear there as expected.

Let's have you look over Manage your iCloud storage to see if you can get to the bottom of what is taking up the abundance of iCloud space. This link also contains some information on how to lessen the load in some cases with optimization options if they're available.

Keep me updated on what you find out.

Have a great day!

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Answer 4

myejag Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 18, 2020 11:07 PM in response to i_rina

She has no idea what happened. She opened her emails on her iPad mini Jan 20th and everything before that date was no longer in her AOL inbox. While I searched to see if she deleted them I found nothing. I merely stumbled upon the email in the icloud account when I was helping her set up her new iPad mini on Feb 15th. She was running out of iCloud space and I was searching for reasons why when I found all the emails in her iCloud account - but they don't just show up in the inbox. I can only see them if I do a search such as by typing the letter a, then all emails from senders starting with a will show up dating back to 2013.

The iCloud account was also on a Macbook (an 8 year old device). Currently it is only associated with the old iPad mini to prevent further uploads to it from her Macbook or the new iPad mini.

So at this point I'm trying to move them back from the iCloud account into her AOL account. The main reason at this juncture is to free up space on iCloud, she has gotten used to living without the emails, but I don't want to just delete them out of the iClound account if I can transfer them back to her AOL account.

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Answer 5

myejag Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 19, 2020 7:08 PM in response to CarlAVII

Yes she is using Apple mail. Access to her AOL account was set up via Apple mail from the beginning. She never had any issues. She has always been an Apple user.

The first thing I had her do was log onto her AOL account via Firefox, taking any Apple association out of the picture. The emails were gone from her AOL account even via webmail.

Yet they can be found on the iCloud account.

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Answer 6

myejag Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 20, 2020 11:13 PM in response to sterling r

Thanks, I was hoping for something better since there are hundreds of emails involved. Since they date back to 2013 and include many videos, photos, spreadsheets and pdf attachments I'm sure a fair amount of space is used by them. They somehow appear to have been moved enmasse to the iCloud from the iPad mini, so I was hoping to be able to replecate that. Thanks for attempting to help us.

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Old AOL emails in iCloud how do I get them back in my AOL account

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