Moved Gmail archive folder to trash, next day all of my emails in my inbox were gone. There is nothing in trash. Checked on google gmail.com not there either. Are the emails still on my MacBook?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.8
Google's implementation of IMAP is terrible. There is no "archive" mailbox. What appears to the archive mailbox in the mail app or your Mac or pretty much any other standards based mail client on any platform is actually "All Mail" in google's system.
There are no actual folders in gmail. What you see as folders are just messages that have been 'tagged' on google's servers.
If the messages no longer appear in the trash on either your Mac or at https://mail.google.com they are most likely gone forever.
KiltedTim gives a good description of Google's implementation of mail organization. It is possible that your Inbox messages are still in the "All Mail" folder but have just had the tag removed that would display them in the Inbox. I would recommend logging into your account on the web at google.com, and using search to search for messages in All Mail by date, or a subject that would have been in your inbox. You may find that the mail is still there and can be selectively moved back to the Inbox.
Lost inbox gmail after moving Archive mail folder to trash
