Troubleshooting missing emails in iCloud inbox
Hi,
I'm trying to troubleshoot the issue for a friend who is completely lost on why this happens (note: in the last 3 years this is the 3rd time this has happened!).
When trying to check emails in iPhone notices that all the emails in the inbox are missing... everything else is there (trash, junk, sent, etc.). Following that, opening Mail in MacOS reveals the same situation, empty inbox. Opens iCloud.com, same thing! Emails are also not in the Recovered box.
I have looked at the Library \ Mail folders and checked the emails stored in the subfolders but apparently too late, they must have "synced-to-empty" or something, because there are quite a few subfolders (numbered 0 to 9) that are empty in the Messages subfolder.
I also made a backup copy of the folders mentioned above and then tried a rebuild... all it did was delete the empty subfolders.
The last Time Machine backup was a couple of months ago when the computer was last connected to the backup drive, so it won't help with anything in the inbox after that.
Don't know if it's related, but iCloud was full before the event (this is the basic 5GB account).
Any fresh ideas on how to recover the lost emails?
MacBook Air 11″, macOS 10.13