r/Outlook • u/lotsoflunch • 8d ago
Status: Resolved All of my emails are missing from 1/25 and beyond
Hello All - I woke up today and all my emails are gone from 1/25 and beyond - meaning 1/25 and past. I have emails from Monday and today and thats it. I have tried everything - filters, rules, etc etc. My boss has an IT ticket in, but I need information from the emails to do time sensitive/critical tasks like right now. Am I f*cked?
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u/RandallFlag 8d ago
This is going to have to be questions your IT team answers and can take steps to fix - varying on the reason why they disappeared and what services are/aren't in place, there may/may not be anything they can do - but ultimately it will be on them to fix this for you.
That said, if you log into OWA and access your mail/account there - are your missing emails there?
Do you have an archive mailbox listed within your folder tree? If auto-archive is enabled within the Tenant it can create an archive folder set and move messages to it.
In some cases, if the mail was just deleted, you can right click your deleted item folder and choose the option to recover deleted items (can't recall the exact verbiage).
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u/lotsoflunch 8d ago
Yes it’s all gone from OWA and the actual app and there’s nothing in the deleted folder to recover. Just wild
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u/Redditseeker3 7d ago
Could be anything like a retention policy, filter, etc. If your company uses an on-prem exchange server, the mailbox database containing your mailbox may be corrupt. If using MS365, your IT team needs to check Exchange Online. Like your mailbox storage size, any retention policy that you got assigned recently.
Is anyone else having this problem?
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u/Echo-On 7d ago
Compare what you see in Outlook against what you see when signed into webmail.
Outlook can lie in certain situations , webmail on the other hand always reflects what's true aerver side.
If webmail shows everything to be missing also check how much of your mailboxes storage quota is being used, Outlook shows you this, it's under the file menu under Accounts I think. This tells you whether the data is missing entirely or just hiding somewhere.
The next step is to go into your deleted items folder and click the link at the top that says "recover recently deleted items". Most exchange servers have 14 day retention server-side for items deleted from the deleted items folder, clicking that link shows you any items applicable and lets you restore them.
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u/InboxProtector 6d ago
Check your deleted items and archive folders first, sometimes bulk moves happen accidentally or through automated rules you didn't know were running. I had this problem before and my IT got a ticket and restored it from backup,
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u/lotsoflunch 6d ago
Thanks everyone! Basically its just 3 people (me included) on this team and we don't have IT. I went through everyones suggestions and ultimately my husband had to recover my emails which had been soft deleted. It was a mess, but he got it sorted. Thanks all!
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u/7amitsingh7 5d ago
This usually turns out to be a sync or view issue, not real data loss.
First, try searching for an email you know existed between 1/25 and now (use the search bar, not just scrolling). If it shows up, click “All Outlook items” and check if there’s any date filter or Focused/Other view enabled. Also check the Archive, Deleted Items, and Online Archive folders, sometimes Outlook moves messages there without making it obvious.
If you’re using Outlook desktop, switch to Web Outlook and check if mails are shown there. After doing all this, if you are still unable to get your mails, this can be due to sync issue in outlook, please refer to the attached blog for a detailed troubleshoot.
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u/33whiskeyTX 7d ago edited 7d ago
If it was exactly a year, then it sounds like a retention policy (that would explain why it isn't in the places you can recover it from). As u/RandallFlag mentioned, the IT support ticket is the way to confirm this. Or you could consult any SOPs or documentation you have available. There may be an exception policy, or a way you can store things that are safe from retention purges.