This topic

Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

Helen10 — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 11:05:51 GMT

I have lost all Inbox e-mails prior to 30/09/22 and all Sent Items e-mails that were sent from Outlook (from a different device). They are not visible on web version of BT e-mail or in Outlook (which is just mirroring) on current device

Searching the community, I see this is a frequently recurring problem but that it can be resolved by BT via the community moderators

Please can both sets of messages be recovered ASAP as there is significant critical information within them

Many thanks in advance

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

gg30340 — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 11:35:47 GMT

If the emails are not showing when you log onto BTMail webmail using a browser it means that the emails have been deleted from the BT Servers and will not able to be recovered.

It may be the case that the moderators will be able to check to see which device deleted the emails but it is unlikely that they will be able to recover them for you if they are not on the BT servers.

I have notified the moderators of the forum about your problem. Once they have read this they may be able to help. They are very busy at present so it can take up to 48 hours for them to contact you. They will do this by posting on this thread.

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

NeilO — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 12:03:35 GMT

Hi @Helen10 thanks for posting. @gg30340 is correct if the emails are no longer on webmail at www.bt.com/email then they've been deleted from the server and unfortunately can't be recovered. Were there any changes to Outlook or any of your other email clients on the 30/09/22 as the deletion request has likely come from a device you use to access your BT emails?

Thanks

Neil

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

Helen10 — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 15:21:28 GMT

No there were no changes to anything on 30 September 2022 and all e-mails were still available up to 14 October 2022 (i.e. 2 days ago) in my Outlook Inbox and Sent Items on my previous laptop. I hadn't checked Webmail for some time as use Outlook but as the Outlook Inbox was synchronsing from the BT server, I would expect all to have been available on Webmail too.

There is now only a 'Sent' folder i.e. not Sent Items folder on webmail and this new laptop's Outlook which contains very old e-mails that were sent via 'Sent' rather than 'Sent Items' many years ago when using Webmail on another device (netbook)

The only change is me replacing my laptop today and when I have used Outlook on this and looked at Webmail, all Sent Items have disappeared (including since 30 September 2022) and all Inbox items prior to 30 September 2022. I have not deleted any e-mails from the Server for a very, very, very long time (i.e. many years).

I don't get why logging into Webmail and Outlook from a different device would coincide with most of my Inbox and all my Sent Items disappearing from BT servers?

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

gg30340 — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 17:40:52 GMT

Have you checked to see if Outlook on your new laptop, which you have set up Outlook on, has Outlook set up as an IMAP or POP 3 account and if it has the settings to keep downloaded items on the server?

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

Helen10 — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 17:57:03 GMT

Is set up as IMAP/SMTP

Downloaded items visible in Outlook are all visible on the server (Webmail), so does not appear to be doing anything to remove downloaded items from the server

And anyway, the new laptop Outlook (and Webmail) has no items prior to 30 September 2022, it was the old laptop that showed all items - Inbox and Sent Items - see previous messages

The problem is with historical items prior to the new laptop and Outlook so not sure how this helps?

There remains the overlap between 30 Sept 22 and Friday between the old laptop and Outlook and the new (for Inbox, Sent Items is just not there at all)- so unclear what there could be about the new Outlook set-up that would cause this

Also I looked at Webmail on my Fire this morning prior to setting up the new laptop (and Outlook) and the same Inbox and absent Sent Items were showing on that device as well. So does not appear linked to the new laptop or Outlook set-up

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

asvora — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 11:30:36 GMT

Hi, around the same date i too lost all my emails from the "sent" folder. I login either via browser or phone app. And I haven't intentionally or accidentally triggered a "delete". I just happened to go to my sent folder to pull out an earlier email... and I discovered it empty barring last 1 week's mails. Wondering has something gone wrong in BT servers?

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

Helen10 — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 18:51:05 GMT

Thanks for posting, does not appear to be an isolated incident around those dates then

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

asvora — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 05:15:05 GMT

Does BT mail admin or support team read our posts? Is there a way to get their attention and response?

Thanks

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

gg30340 — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:19:08 GMT

This is a BT residential customer to customer forum. Your post does not go to BT. The only BT staff are the forum moderators who do not necessarily read all the posts.

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

Addy — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:37:13 GMT

If you still have your old laptop it might be worth checking if Outlook was using POP or IMAP to get your emails. If it is set to POP all your emails should be in a.pst file somewhere on the laptop. I can't remember where but someone else here may know. If it was POP i think there was a setting to either Leave a copy on the server or delete server copy.

I haven't used Outlook for years so Don't know if this helps at all.

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

Helen10 — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 19:24:36 GMT

Can only speak for myself

So will repeat what I said earlier, e-mails definitely not set to delete on server on old or new laptop and the evidence visible now demonstrates this - see earlier post(s).

Old laptop was killed by squash (vegetable), when switched off (before the squash gets accused of deleting e-mails as well.... ) otherwise I would have already accessed the e-mails that way and would not have bought a new laptop. I will be sending the old laptop for advanced data recovery so may recover that way gven theat BT have managed to delete all my sent items and all but approx. 1 week's worth of Inbox items. Am deeply unimpressed.

I will find a way to make a direct customer complaint on this matter, have been a customer for over 13 years and when I needed the BT server to be a reliable back-up - it failed. And the response instead has been to suggest that I had deleted them myself deliberately or unknowingly (repeatedly), despite me explaining why this was impossible given the evidence.

The forum has labelled me a 'beginner' because I have not posted here before - it doesn't mean I am clueless about all IT matters!

Am sure you all mean well but I only posted here because moderators had responded to other posts (multiple) previously about unexplained e-mail disappearance and recovered the e-mails. I guess there are just too many other problems right now - & I don't mean the UK or world in general ;)!

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

gg30340 — Sat, 22 Oct 2022 06:13:22 GMT

The moderators did respond to you in message 3.

Nobody has said/ suggested you deleted the emails intentionally or unintentionally.

You were asked about your email client in an effort to try and diagnose/ establish what could have caused the problem.

It has been found in the past that the deletions have been caused by email clients.

As my response has not met your expectations I will bow out of this thread.

Please keel the thread updated with how you get on trying to recover your emails.

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

asvora — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 06:15:33 GMT

sorry I was offline couple of days... to continue; I noticed that all the "sent" emails which I had moved to my respective folders are intact. Only the ones in "sent" have disappeared post ~mid Oct. I suspect some kind of purge happened from BT side. Again... I use only browser and iphone "mail" to access emails. I dont download using Outlook et al.

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

asvora — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 04:05:48 GMT

Hi, should I hope for any response, some kind of investigation after BT looks at server or activity log files etc. Or just accepted that my "sent" email are permanently purged and beyond recovery?

Because this is scary, what if tomorrow emails from my folder get purged!?

Re: Lost Inbox and Sent Items e-mails

jc25bill — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 10:29:40 GMT

Hi Helen, I had the same problem last year, lost 10 years of sent items - I went to BT and they said I had deleted 30,000 of work emails - like you wouldn't notice that. I managed data recovery on an old laptop for a few years but I now realise back up of emails myself is the only way. Hope you get on ok, all the best:)