Missing emails in Sent folder

[deejay1944]

Overnight all but the latest three emails have disappeared from my Sent folder on my desktop, iPad and iPhone. How can I retrieve them ? Help, please !

[gg30340]

Have you checked the trash/delete folder?

If you use an email client/app on your desktop PC have you logged onto your email account using a browser to see if the contents are there?

[deejay1944]

Thanks for your reply.

They are not in the trash folder.

I log in using Google Chrome as my browser, going to bt.com/? and from there to the BT email log in page.

I have three btinternet.com email addresses. It is only the main one where there is a problem.  In the other two all the sent emails show up .

[gg30340]

If the emails are not showing on webmail, when you log on using a browser, it means that they have been deleted from the BT servers and will most likely not be able to be recovered.

I will advise the moderators of the forum who may be able to assist but it is more likely all they will be able to ascertain which of your devices triggered the delete.

[deejay1944]

Thank you for helping. One other thing occurred overnight, which may or may not be connected to the disappearance of the emails in the Sent folder.

The appearance of the email screen on my iPhone7 changed. There is now a section at the top with containing Inbox, Flagged and Drafts. A "flagged" folder is something new.  Then there is a heading Btinternet and below that, Drafts, Sent, Junk, Bin, Archive and all my other folders.

[DavidM]

Hi @deejay1944 and thanks for posting.

I'm sorry you've lost your emails. @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. You've mentioned there were changes on you iPhone7 which will be more than likely where the deletion request has come from.

Cheers

David

[deejay1944]

Thank you, DavidM, for your reply. Of the three btinternet.com email addresses that I use, it is only the one linked to my iPhone that has had the sent emails deleted, so your suggestion is plausible. But t he fact that the emails have been deleted from the BT Servers  at the request of a third party is extremely concerning. Is there no way of preventing that happening, other than copying all emails to one of the addresses that is not linked to my phone ?

[gg30340 · Accepted solution]

The following is not an attempt to apportion blame or suggest you did anything wrong it is an attempt to answer your questions.

If it was your iPhone that deleted them it was the email app that was set up presumably by you with all your account details so while it is third party product, it is working with first hand information that was supplied by you and presumably you were happy using the email app up until now. 

The only way to prevent your or any email app from accessing your email account would be to not set it up in the first place or require it to need the password inserted every time you wanted to use it.

In future you are best not to leave emails in your Inbox or Sent folders instead you should set up storage folders and file the emails into them.

You should also set up a back up regime if you do not already have one, so that your emails are downloaded and stored so that if something like this happens you are in a position to restore them

[deejay1944]

Hello @gg30340 ,

Thank you for your constructive comments. I do move emails in my Inbox to subject-based folders and will start doing so with Sent emails. But if the email App can request deletion of emails in the Sent folder - via some algorithm or other agency - what is to stop it requesting deletion of emails in a subject folder, or indeed all emails in all folders ?

It's a scary prospect so I will have to explore your suggestion to back up all emails - unless you have a preferred method you are willing to share.