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Disappearing email across devices

I have 6 different email accounts on (Outlook, Webcity and Gmail) and use multiple Apple devices to access them. Last evening I opened my email on my iPhone to find on some accounts, all emails in my Inbox from 4 hours previous were gone, while others had a gap where emails remained from prior to August 2020 had disappeared.

I've now learned that Time Machine no longer backs these up (Really!?!!! WTF! How arbitrary/dumb is that!)

I've gone into Outlook and found that these emails are also not on the server. Same with Gmail. And when I go into the deleted folder, they've disappeared from there too.

I count on being able to access and search past emails from my Inboxes for work, as well as personal reasons. I'm trying to understand why this has happened and how to get these back. I'd have a better chance of understanding and troubleshooting this, if it was limited within a predictable set of emails (e.g. just Gmail, or just Outlook, or just messages on a single device), but I can't figure this out.

Has anyone come across anything similar? Any suggestions on how to get my thousands of email back!? Thanks in advance for any help!


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Mar 23, 2022 9:17 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 24, 2022 8:42 AM

ggfromcp wrote:

I have 6 different email accounts on (Outlook, Webcity and Gmail) and use multiple Apple devices to access them. Last evening I opened my email on my iPhone to find on some accounts, all emails in my Inbox from 4 hours previous were gone, while others had a gap where emails remained from prior to August 2020 had disappeared.



I've gone into Outlook and found that these emails are also not on the server. Same with Gmail. And when I go into the deleted folder, they've disappeared from there too.

Any suggestions on how to get my thousands of email back!? Thanks in advance for any help!



IMAP should remain on the server..?


You can rebuild a mailbox if it is isolated issue

Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support


For problem accounts the go to way to sort things out is to delete the account, then add it back.


Remove email accounts in Mail on Mac

Remove email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support


Add email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Add email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support


Note—

• IMAP accounts stay on the server, so no local loss, when you re-sync

• POP accounts download and remove from the server—therefor save your inbox/sent box if you want them

• "On My Mac" is just that, local folders you created and moved mail into. So no loss

——————————————————————




1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 24, 2022 8:42 AM in response to ggfromcp

ggfromcp wrote:

I have 6 different email accounts on (Outlook, Webcity and Gmail) and use multiple Apple devices to access them. Last evening I opened my email on my iPhone to find on some accounts, all emails in my Inbox from 4 hours previous were gone, while others had a gap where emails remained from prior to August 2020 had disappeared.



I've gone into Outlook and found that these emails are also not on the server. Same with Gmail. And when I go into the deleted folder, they've disappeared from there too.

Any suggestions on how to get my thousands of email back!? Thanks in advance for any help!



IMAP should remain on the server..?


You can rebuild a mailbox if it is isolated issue

Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support


For problem accounts the go to way to sort things out is to delete the account, then add it back.


Remove email accounts in Mail on Mac

Remove email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support


Add email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Add email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support


Note—

• IMAP accounts stay on the server, so no local loss, when you re-sync

• POP accounts download and remove from the server—therefor save your inbox/sent box if you want them

• "On My Mac" is just that, local folders you created and moved mail into. So no loss

——————————————————————




Disappearing email across devices

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