This topic

Email history and folders disappeared

jgstone — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 23:47:27 GMT

Hi,
I used ms outlook for many years on my PC until the SSD recently died. Now when I connect to Webmail I can only see the most recent messages, my years of email history is gone, as are all the folders I created.
I couldn't see any settings in web mail indicating that anything had been archived.
Can anybody help ?
Thanks,
James.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

gg30340 — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:29:29 GMT

Was your Outlook set up as an IMAP or POP3 account?

If it was a POP3 account and if you did not tick the box "Leave a copy on the server" in the settings it would mean that once your emails had been downloaded by Outlook they would then be deleted from the BT servers and once deleted they are not recoverable.

Also if it was a POP3 account, any folders that you set up in Outlook would not be replicated on the BT servers and as such they would not be there when you checked webmail.

If Outlook was set up as an IMAP account this would have replicated and synchronised your emails and folders with the BT server and provided Outlook did not delete them they would be on the BT server when you checked webmail.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

jgstone — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 08:55:18 GMT

Hi,

I can't see any older messages on web mail, so I presume the previous setup was POP3, but because the old SSD died I cannot see what the previous settings were.

I don't recall explicitly setting the "Leave a copy on the server" option to any value. Do you know what the default value for this is ?

Thanks for the quick response,

James.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 09:03:46 GMT

@jgstone

Just a thought, if you have an Outlook account, and you had Outlook configured to fetch mail from the BT servers, then logging into Outlook Web, may show those missing messages.

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

gg30340 — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 09:52:35 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe wrote:

@jgstone

Just a thought, if you have an Outlook account, and you had Outlook configured to fetch mail from the BT servers, then logging into Outlook Web, may show those missing messages.

https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/

Is this not for Outlook.com which is Microsoft webmail.

I have presumed the OP was using the email client/app known as Outlook.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:01:34 GMT

If you have a Microsoft account, then using the Outlook program, allows access to emails via webmail.

Outlook is part of Microsoft365.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

licquorice — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:43:35 GMT

Outlook the mail client and Outlook.com webmail are totally different. Even if they were the same, if Outlook is configured as POP3, mail is downloaded to the client and not accessible elsewhere.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:53:53 GMT

I have Microsoft 365 family which includes the Outlook program. Everything that I can see on Outlook, also shows on Outlook.com. I was not aware there was still a stand alone Outlook program which was not part of Microsoft 365.

I do not use it to fetch BT mail, as that is done via Gmail,

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

licquorice — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:58:54 GMT

I still use Outlook 2010 and that has no connection with Outlook.com, Microsoft still supply standalone versions of Outlook rather than using Outlook 365.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

Carlusha — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 11:03:47 GMT

@jgstonewrote:

I used ms outlook for many years on my PC until the SSD recently died.

Jay, why not take your computer/laptop together with the SSD to the local computer repair shop. There, they may be able to retrieve / recreate the contents of the drive.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

jgstone — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 11:21:27 GMT

Thank you all for your input. For clarity, I was using MS Outlook as a mail client to access my btinternet.com messages. When I log into btinternet web mail I can't see any older messages, so I think they're all gone, but I'll be happy to try any suggestions.

Thanks again,

James

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

licquorice — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 11:24:51 GMT

I'm assuming you don't have a backup of your SSD anywhere, if you do the mails will be in a .PST file.

Re: Email history and folders disappeared

gg30340 — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 14:22:51 GMT

Are you sure that the SSD has died ? It could be something else that is causing the SSD not to "fire" up.

I would be inclined to remove it from your PC and connect it to an SSD hard drive enclosure. You can buy one on Amazon for about £10.

Assuming the SSD is not broken, this would allow you to place your SSD into it and then connect it by USB to your PC or laptop. You would then be able to search through all the files that are on it and locate Outlook's PST and copy it onto your PC or Laptops drive and access it from there.