You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Missing emails in Mail - Lion deleting them?

I'm using Mail with two IMAP accounts (oneis gmail), and I'm experiencing a little weirdness.


I seem to be missing emails coming in, which I'm not deleting or filing away.


I got in late last night and checked my emails on my iPhone. I read one that needed to be replied to today, then closed Mail on my iPhone and went to bed.


This morning, I jumped on my Lion iMac and opened Mail - and the email I read on my iPhone doesn't appear in my inbox. I checked on my iPhone and iPad and it's not there either.


I didn't delete it or move it or do anything other than read it on my iPhone.


I asked on another forum, and one person said the following:


I am experiencing the same thing. I seem to be able to send email from the Lion's new Mail, but can't receive any.


I have several mail accounts in Mail and the problem seem to be the same with all of them regardless of whether on exchange server or not. The strange thing is that I can see and read some of the "invisible" incoming mail in my iPhone, but if I try to refresh my Mail accounts on mac, it may delete the new emails also from my iPhone! The disappearing emails are nowhere to be found and I have also checked the external exchange service mail boxes and junk mail and spam boxes.


Quite serious bug causing a lot of harm!


So it doesn't seem to be just me.


Anyone else?


Cheers.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 24, 2011 9:44 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 25, 2011 8:02 AM

I'm having the exact same problem that you describe. In some cases incoming mail appears in the inbox for a few seconds, but then dissappears and I'm unable to find it anywhere.

251 replies

Jun 13, 2013 12:31 PM in response to johnedlt

Emails being put into the All Mail folder has nothing to do with Mail (or Outlook or Thunderbird if were using), but would be because Gmail duplicates every message in the Inbox and the All Mail folder.


The issue you cite is almost certain to be having the Gmail account on more than one device, where either one device has it set up as POP and is removing the message when downloaded, or from one of the devices having a Rule to automatically delete or move to another folder not onl the device you are now looking at.


If on a device where set up as IMAP (the default most times when adding a Gmail account) it would be normal to briefly see a message once downloaded to that machine, but since deleted by action on another machine. The local cache copy is seen for an instant, and then the Inbox is synced to that on the IMAP server to reflect actions taken on another device. An IMAP Inbox only exists with durability on the server.


Lack of user understanding, plain and simple.


Ernie

Jul 11, 2013 12:27 AM in response to Csound1

So, I know everyone thinks this is a case of user incompetence, but let me explain what happened today. I've had a few emails that seemed to go missing over the past few months, but today -- baffling.


1. I received an email while at lunch and I remember what it said pretty much word for word. It contained an attachment that was around 6MB and the wifi I was so slow, I gave up on trying to download it at the time.


2. When I got home, the email was gone. It isn't in any folders. Not my inbox, not the trash or spam -- not even on the web mail server. It is simply gone. I KNOW this was a glitch, and not just my dumb fault. It's happened a few times before, but this was the first time I could convince myself bc it happened so suddenly.


Explain this please.

Jul 21, 2013 10:25 PM in response to Adam McGechan

There's no question that missing iCloud emails are a problem for me in the OS X "Mail" app.


I have at least one (inbound) email from yesterday in my iPhone Inbox (iCloud/IMAP) that does not apear on the Mac. There is no operator error involved here- I'm looking at the same account and seeing different things on different devices.


Also- I just sent an email from my Mac (got the swooshing confirmation sound) that doesn't appear in my "Sent" mailbox, either on the Mac or the iPhone.


My wifi is a bit dodgy at the moment- network performance is poor. I'm going to make a wild guess and wonder if there are timeout settings in the client apps that result in certain emails becoming invisible, even though they've been sent or received at some point, on some device.


In any case- this is very disturbing. Valid emails are missing, and it makes me wonder what I've missed that didn't appear anywhere.

Sep 23, 2014 3:47 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

The same issues as described by Coates 21 and I've been feeling like I'm going crazy with this problem. I swapped our emails over from POP accounts to IMAP accounts with a new provider.

I have had the following issues:


I see a notification come up whilst I'm working and then go to look at email a few moments later and it has vanished without being read, it is not in deleted, it is not on the webmail.


1. Look at an email at home on my iPhone and leave it as unread as I know I will deal with this when I get into the office. But it has vanished when I get there, again it is not anywhere to be found on the work computer, iPhone, iPad or webmail


2. Large chunks of 'conversation' or complete threads have randomly gone missing from all devices


3. Sent messages are vanishing some days after they were sent.


4. Emails very slow to arrive


I contacted my email provider (Macace) and sent information about specific emails but was told it was not their problem as the log said it had been delivered to me. When I asked where it might have gone and why it wasn't in the deleted folder I was told I must have deleted it (I didn't)


I use a number of sub folders for certain clients and have rules diverting incoming email into those folders, the emails that vanish are often ones that do not have rules though. Of course I can't run 'rules' on the iPhone or iPad.


I was using Spamsieve but turned this off, I also removed any rules I'd created to try and handle spam (i.e. containing key words such as casino, etc)


I did rebuild all the mailboxes and also the subfolders (using the webmail interface) as recommended by my supplier, this seemed to improve things for a while


I have a suspicion it is some sort of time and synching issue with different information on different devices, I'd really like to resolve it as it's very challenging to someone who has a busy design business.

Sep 23, 2014 7:36 AM in response to Chris Hoskins

Folders used in conjunction with IMAP accounts must be created (and reside) on the IMAP account server, and NOT On My Mac. Otherwise a Move to a folder will remove the email from both the Inbox and the server.


On all your devices, do these folder show in the account in the Accounts portion of Mail on an iOS device, and at the bottom of the sidebar in Mail on your Macs, below the sub header for each account?


Also, on your Mac, control click (or right-click) on the account, and choose Get Account Info -- are all the expected folders there?


Ernie

Sep 23, 2014 8:23 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Yes, I created all the accounts using the webmail as I was instructed, this means they reside on the server.


These then appear under the account name on my main Mac. However I have to scroll to the main business Account page on the iPhone or iPad to view these (they do not appear in All mailboxes or in the upper section listing different mailboxes).


If my work computer is shut down at night and I download on my iPhone then the email from "Client A" will show in the All mailboxes on my phone. If the work computer is switched on and it downloads the email first then it will be in the "Client A" folder. I will then sometimes move it into the client folder once I get to work.


All the mailboxes appear in the Get Info as expected.


Has anyone had this issue when using Spamsieve? I found it very good normally and would like to start re-using it.

Sep 23, 2014 8:38 AM in response to Chris Hoskins

The issue may be with how the folders were created. Across time, with all versions of Mail, when folders are created as subfolders of the Inbox (appearing below said Inbox) they have been problematic with IMAP accounts. While they may work reliably with webmail interface, with Mail and/or other email clients they are not universally "good". My experience in that regard predates any of my experiences on iOS devices, btw, so could be even more problematic.


It would likely have been best to have created the folder within Mail, where you can carefully specify them to be at the top level of the IMAP account, but which will not result in their being sub folders to the INBOX. With what I know so far, that is all can think of. You could probably still create them over again in Mail, and it you have copied the messages that you have either back to the Inbox, or into an On My Mac mailbox system, you could then transfer them back to newly created folders. I also don't what options you may have when creating them in the webmail interface.


Ernie

Sep 23, 2014 8:51 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Thanks Ernie


I also wondered that but the issue first arose when creating them on my Mac from within Mail. The web interface showed all the boxes I had created hover I created new ones and transferred the emails across using the web interface (as instructed). After a few initial panics when boxes vanished all together it all settled down and everything on the webmail appears on my Mac, laptop, iPhone and iPad now.


However recently I've had a few emails not delivered (my clients had told me they sent them, and another when I went to reset a password on a bank account, which camera through the second time). There seems to be very little logic to it which is what is so disturbing!

Missing emails in Mail - Lion deleting them?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.