I accidently deleted gmail messages on my computer. I use Apple mail. Can I retrieve them?

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I accidently deleted gmail messages on my computer. I use Apple mail. Can I retrieve them?

I use Gmail's IMAP setttings to download email to my computer. I have 3 separate email accounts on Apple Mail. Today, I accidently select all and deleted all 3k messages from my Apple Inbox. Once I did that, it automatically deleted all emails from this computer, and my other computer, along with my iphone and on gmail.com.

Is there a way to get those emails back?

I am in my Library folder and in the Mail folder, I see all 3 IMAP folders. And within those folders, there is a Messages folder that has a lot of emails that are not in my Apple Inbox? I went to gmail.com and took all the messages in my trash and moved it to Inbox. But these messages were only abot 150. I have no idea where all the 3k emails went??

Please help as I need these emails.

Thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 26, 2012 9:58 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Apr 26, 2012 10:01 PM in response to Vismad

Yikes, if you deleted them on your Mac then it would delete them on gMail's server as soon as it could. 😟

Do you have a Backup of any kind? Otherwise no way to get them back.

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Answer 2

Vismad Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 26, 2012 10:20 PM in response to BDAqua

I had no backup. I had just bought the new iMac and I migrated all files and settings today. After launching new mail in my new iMac, and confirming that I had all messages, I started deleting files in my old computer and launched Mail and accidently selected all messages and deleted them :(

I realized a second later when I saw emails vanished from my new IMac.

I thought gmail didn't delete the messages and put them in the trash and trash deleted them in 30 days or something?

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

141,162 points

Apr 26, 2012 10:29 PM in response to Vismad

... I went to gmail.com and took all the messages in my trash and moved it to Inbox. But these messages were only abot 150.

Like you said Gmail deletes them after a specified number of days. If the messages you moved to gmail's Trash were older than that, gmail deleted them.

Log into your Gmail account on its website

https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLoginAuth

If you have an "all mail" folder search for them there. If they're not present, they're gone.

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Answer 4

Vismad Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 26, 2012 10:42 PM in response to John Galt

What's the differene between "all mail" and "inbox" in gmail? I see some of my messages in my 'all mail' folder and I am moving them to inbox right now 😁 Thanks!!

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

141,162 points

Apr 26, 2012 10:48 PM in response to Vismad

What's the differene between "all mail" and "inbox" in gmail?

"All mail" searches for them everywhere including the Trash. Perhaps you were only looking at page 1 of many Trash pages.

It's hard enough to get Gmail to delete messages for good. I clean it out every couple of months despite deleting messages in Mac Mail and setting Gmail delete them after 30 days. Gmail insists on keeping them anyway.

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