Why are my emails disappearing?

I had thus same problem & fixed it by changing my "days to sync" in settings, mail,contacts,etc, then noose yor email accoun & mail days to sync. Switch it to no limit. All my dropped emails came ack! Make sure our "emails to show" limit is high enough as well.

Yep thank you that's solved it :)

HElp I'm having the same problem but I don't see those settings "days to sync". Please walk me through it.

The "mail days to sync" option is only relevant to IMAP accounts. Yours must be POP. (You click on your ccount under Mail and if it is IMAP the "mail days to sync" phrase will appear two lines above the option DELETE ACCOUNT.)

Emails in my secondary account have gone missing, not to trash. Now, even when I collect them, they dissapear from the In Box while I'm reading them. This has just started recently and has not affected by Primary Account.

The secondary account is my Work email and I need to have a file of them all for when I travel. I do not have folders where I file things. I do not use the iCloud. Where are they???

I have the problem too. Emails come to my iphone 4 until I open outlook on my pc. Once outlook opens my email are downloaded from the server, then they disappear from the iphone. My Outlook is POP and iphone is IMAP.

Thank you Addiess, changing the "days to sync" worked. Now all of my missing emails are back. I had an empty inbox earlier, now suddenly I have 122 emails.

Once again, Thank you 🙂

I am having the same problem. I have followed the advice in this thread and it has sorted 2 accounts out for me. The main one I need sorting is my @sky.com account and there is no option on there to sync days?

For those with POP accounts, here is the setting to ensure the emails are set to being kept on the device:

1. In Settings, select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
   
2. Select the account for which you wish to change the settings.
3. Select Advanced, located at the bottom of the list.
4. Select the Delete from server option.
5. Choose NEVER from the pop-up menu.
6. Press the Home button to return to the Home screen.

However, you will also need to configure any other devices or programs you use to check your pop account to stop this issue.

See this article for more info about using POP accounts with multiple devices, and instructions on how to configure for specific email clients - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3228

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However I am working on an issue now with 2 cox.net accounts affected on an iPhone 5. Issue began out of nowhere, after using the accounts successfully on the iPhone for nearly a year. I havent altered the settings, so I cant see why this happened all of a sudden. I have verified all settings are correct for the email accounts. I have done basic iOS ts as well. The odd thing about it is it seems to be fixed, then about a hour or two later I will return to the inbox on the iPhone to find no emails.

here is a similar thread I found on the android forum, so I am definitely suspecting an email client issue here, though I cant quite figure out what it is....

Any further ideas?

2 days ago I have the same problem. My hotmail emails disappeared. I deleted my a/c, turn off and on then add it back. Since then I received new mails (old mails still missing) so are those in my folders. I can't see whether hotmail is run by IMAP or POP in my settings. It was working fine for the past 1 year. All my mails are still there when I checked on my desktop.

A few weeks back I tried sending some emails but it couldn't as it says I am not connected to the server.

Please help.

KW

I am talking about my iPad, I don't own an iPhone.

As far as your hotmail problem on your iPad (please note that iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches run the same operating system (OS) and all instructions can be used interchangably for any of these devices, assuming they are running the same iOS version):

POP accounts do not work like IMAP accounts, which reliably store all of your emails on the server, this is the reason you are not seeing old emails on your iPad after re-adding the account to your iPad, but still continue to see them on your computer. (See POP vs. IMAP comparison link near the end of this post)

I would strongly recommend setting up your hotmail account as an exchange account on your iPad. This has fixed this issue for everyone I have spoken to that was experiencing this with Hotmail or MSN accounts on thier iOS devices.

It is very easy to do:

1. Go to settings>Mail, contacts and calendars, tap on your Hotmail account. Choose Delete account.

2. Choose Add Account (from the Settings> Mail, contacts and calendars page)

3. Tap "Microsoft Exchange"

4. Enter your full Hotmail email address in both the Email and Username fields.

5. Enter your Hotmail Password like normal

6. Description can be whatever you want

7. Leave Domain field blank

8. Tap next

9. On this next page, the only thing you'll need to enter if the Server: m.hotmail.com

10. If verification is successful, will see a screen where you can choose to sync mail (YES), contacts, and calendars. Select contacts and calendars if you want.

11. Choose Save

See in depth instructions on setting up your Hotnail account as an Exchange Account on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch here --> http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/08/how-to-setup-hotmail-using-exchange-activesyn c-on-your-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-for-push-email-calendar-contacts.html

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POP vs. IMAP info - http://computer.howstuffworks.com/e-mail-messaging/email4.htm

IMAP is known for its ability to keep all your devices and computers in sync with one another, while POP often falls short in this area. POP is an older format.

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For others running into this issue, I would look into setting up your POP account as an IMAP or Exchange Account. (If the instructions on how to keep your emails on the server, a few posts above did not work for your POP account and you continue to experience missing emails). Not all email server providers (ESP's) offer this.

ie: AOL/AIM offers POP or IMAP, Gmail is IMAP, Yahoo! offers POP or IMAP, Hotmail/MSN/Live is POP (which is why the exchange account is the best choice in this case), iCloud / Me / Mac is IMAP.

Please find out if IMAP is supported by your ESP before trying this. Generally you can just search something like: "______ account setup as IMAP on iPhone" or something similar on google and will get the info and settings you need.

IMPORTANT - If you switch your email account to IMAP on one device it is ESENTIAL that you do the same for all the other computers or devices you have set up to use that email account. Not doing so can result in missing emails. Everything either needs to be configured as POP or IMAP.

WARNING - Be sure to Back up your emails before switching to IMAP, as many could be lost on the specific device during the switch. But this will solve the problem permentantly, so it is often worth it. This is not the case for using Exchange for email accounts, which will not cause any data loss.

- How to backup and store a copy of your Emails on your Mac (using Mail App) - http://www.hosting.com/support/email/back-up-email-with-mail-for-os-x

- How to backup your emails on Windows using Outllook -

http://www.wikihow.com/Back-Up-Microsoft-Outlook

Or http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

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I hope this is helpful! 🙂

As far as the cox.net issues I mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to resolve them by switching all of the devices and computers to IMAP. Turns out some were configured for POP and some for IMAP.

Cox.net IMAP server settings and instructions - http://ww2.cox.com/residential/gulfcoast/support/internet/article.cox?articleId= db0c9270-b1d9-11e2-d072-000000000000

Warning - back up your emails before switching to IMAP, as many could be lost on the specific device during the switch. But this will solve the problem permentantly, so it is often worth it.

Yep this worked for me. I had videos of my little boy's starring role in the school play In my emails. I thought they had gone forever. Thank You.