This topic

Email recovery after IMAP accident

samuelthomson — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:51:50 GMT

Hello,

Yesterday I deleted around 10 years worth of emails from within Outlook without realising that I had IMAP switched on. Accordingly, these changes seem to have been replicated to my BT Email inbox (https://email.bt.com/mail).

Is there any way that BT can help me to restore these emails?

Sam

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:04:01 GMT

Did you hard delete them, i.e Shift+Delete or just soft delete them? If the latter, they will be in your Trash/Deleted items folder.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

samuelthomson — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:36:37 GMT

They aren't in Trash.

I'm wondering whether BT email can help me restore the email folders from an older copy or something.

Like I said, I deleted a bunch of files from within Outlook, and then those changes propagated to BT email unexpectedly due to my IMAP settings. For some reason, my "sent" messages all got copied to the trash folder, but not things in other folders. I also created a .pst archive right before I deleted any emails in Outlook, but most of the folders in there are empty despite the file being 5GB. If you have any suggestions about that then great, but my main purpose in posting here is to find out if BT can help me restore my old email another way.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:44:24 GMT

I would be very surprised if the mails are recoverable but will ask if the mods can help.

Have you added the archive .PST file to Outlook as a Data file? They should be in there.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:54:02 GMT

You should also be able to recover them from the .PST file from the last backup of your device.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

samuelthomson — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 18:26:51 GMT

"Have you added the archive .PST file to Outlook as a Data file? They should be in there."

- They should be, but despite being around 5GB, many of the folders in the .PST file are empty. I've tried the free version of StellaRepair and RemoRepair and neither tool looked like it could see any emails in the empty folders. I don't know why this has happened.

"You should also be able to recover them from the .PST file from the last backup of your device".

- That would be great, where should I look for old .PST files? I'm using a desktop PC with Windows. My gut feeling though is that this PC doesn't make regular backups. I also have a laptop PC that I very occasionally use, but I looked at Outlook on that computer and there were no emails in any of its folders when I wasn't connected to the internet, and presumably if I connect it to the internet then it will just become a duplicate of the Outlook folder structures on my PC and BT web mail.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 18:31:49 GMT

If you haven't got any backup software that you have configured for regular backups, then I'm afraid you won't have any backups to recover the .PST file from.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

gg30340 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 18:50:53 GMT

It is doubtful that BT will be able recover the emails. Any time that other posters have requested a recovery it has been met with a "not possible" with the very few exceptions when it was a BT fault that deleted them and even then it was rarely a 100% recovery.

Have you checked all the folders that you have set up in Outlook and on BTMail .

If you have found your .pst file and it is showing as being 5GB there must be something there.

See link about how to view the file.

How to manage .pst files in Microsoft Outlook - Outlook | Microsoft Docs

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

samuelthomson — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:04:11 GMT

Ok, is there a way I can make a request to BT to look into it though? There are around 12 years of emails that have gone missing, both personal and professional, and I want to try all possible options for getting them back.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:27:42 GMT

https://www.bt.com/help/email/bt-email--some-of-my-emails-are-missing--can-i-recover-them-

If you have take a Windows system image very recently, then you can mount that image, and copy the data files back again.

I normally take monthly system images, just in case something goes wrong, although I use Gmail not BT Mail, and the Thunderbird email client.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

samuelthomson — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:29:53 GMT

I've already tried that, I thought gg30340 was suggesting that BT can sometimes recover emails so I was asking about how I'd request that they look into doing that for my missing emails.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:34:58 GMT

Its odd that Outlook has not put them into a deleted file on your computer.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restore-deleted-email-messages-in-outlook-com-cf06ab1b-ae0b-418c-a4d9-4e895f83ed50

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:50:44 GMT

@samuelthomson wrote:

I've already tried that, I thought gg30340 was suggesting that BT can sometimes recover emails so I was asking about how I'd request that they look into doing that for my missing emails.

See message 4.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

gg30340 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:52:39 GMT

@samuelthomson wrote:

I've already tried that, I thought gg30340 was suggesting that BT can sometimes recover emails so I was asking about how I'd request that they look into doing that for my missing emails.

No, what I said was " if it was a BT fault that deleted them and even then it was rarely a 100% recovery". This, I suspect would be because when BT lost or deleted an account holder's emails it usually happened when BT were working on the system and presumably they made a back up prior to commencing the work.

BT do not offer a of recovery of emails when it has been done by the account holder whether by accident or design.

licquorice mentioned in message 4 that he would contact the moderators to see if they can help but I would agree that it will be surprising if they can recover them.

If they can help they will contact you via this thread.

EDIT: Post crossed with above post.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:52:20 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe wrote:

https://www.bt.com/help/email/bt-email--some-of-my-emails-are-missing--can-i-recover-them-

If you have take a Windows system image very recently, then you can mount that image, and copy the data files back again.

I normally take monthly system images, just in case something goes wrong, although I use Gmail not BT Mail, and the Thunderbird email client.

As far as I'm aware, you can no longer extract individual files from a Windows backup image, it can only be used to clone a disc.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

samuelthomson — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:55:26 GMT

"Its odd that Outlook has not put them into a deleted file on your computer."

That looks like it's for Outlook.com or Outlook Live. I'm using the version that comes with Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016. I certainly don't have the option in the "deleted" folder to "recover items..."

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:54:40 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe wrote:

Its odd that Outlook has not put them into a deleted file on your computer.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restore-deleted-email-messages-in-outlook-com-cf06ab1b-ae0b-418c-a4d9-4e895f83ed50

That is Outlook.com not MS Outlook the mail client.

Deleted files are sent to trash unless hard deleted by pressing Shift+ Delete, in which case they are deleted permanently.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

gg30340 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:56:45 GMT

Did you look at the link I posted earlier about your 5GB .pst file?

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 22:04:07 GMT

@licquorice wrote:

@Keith_Beddoe wrote:

https://www.bt.com/help/email/bt-email--some-of-my-emails-are-missing--can-i-recover-them-

If you have take a Windows system image very recently, then you can mount that image, and copy the data files back again.

I normally take monthly system images, just in case something goes wrong, although I use Gmail not BT Mail, and the Thunderbird email client.

As far as I'm aware, you can no longer extract individual files from a Windows backup image, it can only be used to clone a disc.

Yes you can, you need to mount the .vhdx file which is within the system image folder. Its the largest one. Its done via the disk management console, attach VHD.

It then appears as a new drive letter and you can use file explorer to locate any files you want. I have don it many times.

Re: Email recovery after IMAP accident

licquorice — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 22:02:56 GMT

Does that work with W11?