Mail deletes emails from IMAP account

Hi manellop,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities! I'm sorry to hear you are having this issue with your mail. I'm a bit unclear on your exact configuration; do you have multiple email accounts with the same provider, multiple email accounts with multiple providers, access one or more of the accounts from multiple devices, or some combination of the above? In general, the biggest difference between IMAP and POP is that IMAP leaves everything on the mail server (like a message board), while POP downloads the mail directly to your computer (more like the post office, which is where it gets its name: Post Office Protocol). This means that if you have two different devices set up to access the same email account via POP, they may only get certain emails and miss out on others, just like two different people fetching mail from an actual postal mailbox.

Some mail providers may allow POP accounts to leave mail on the server, but sometimes only for a limited time after it has been initially fetched. If you are using multiple devices to access an account, you may want to use IMAP for all devices. If you want to remain using POP with multiple devices, then I recommend taking a look at the support article linked to below for assistance.

Get help if you have issues using a POP email account with more than one device

Regards

I have the same problem. I'm using IMAP on phone and computer. After 8 days any emails in my inbox get deleted. Other boxes (sent trash etc.) are fine. As you point out, the emails are not on the server, so I'm basically screwed. My provider told me that the emails were actually still there and that they could restore them for me, but they cannot restore a specific time span (say, the last 2 months). Instead, they can only restore every email I have ever received over the last 6-8 years of this account.. I said no...

Prior to syncing devices, this never happened.

What I have been unable to determine is whether or not this is an Apple problem. If I use something besides Mac Mail, will this still happen?

Try creating an On My Mac mailbox and move the e-mails there.

Thanks Eric Root. If I move an email to any other folder, it remains safe and is not deleted. I do have "on my mac" folders and use them successfully. Is it possible to have my incoming mail automatically go to an "on my mac" folder or do I have to do it manually?

I will try setting a rule to send all inbox mail to a new "on my mac" inbox.

I set up the new Inbox folder as described above along with a rule to send all "Mailboxes" Inbox mail to "On my Mac" Inbox. The rule is working fine. Now I will wait to see what happens once the emails are 7 days old.

I don't know if this is related, but now, emails from my wife go automatically to "Junk". If I try to move them to another folder they simply disappear and do not show up when I do a search for them. For some reason, even though they are in the Junk folder, the usual header (Mail thinks this message is Junk Mail) is missing as is the "not Junk" button. This has happened before to emails from others in my address book, but I never noticed if it coincided with any of the other issues I'm having.

It's been almost 3 weeks and this work-around is working fine.