Emails Disappeared from my Inbox

[Elimin]

I can see in the past others have had this problem but none of the solutions in those questions have helped me.

I noticed earlier today that emails I received during a period of about a month from early December 2024 to early January 2025 had disappeared from my Inbox.  I could see emails received before December 2024 and after the beginning of January 2025 were still there.  No emails in my sent items or other subfolders were affected.  I normally use Outlook on my trusty PC to manage my emails using an SMTP link but I also use the BT Mail app on an Android device.  When I logged on to my emails using both the Edge and Chrome browsers my emails also weren't there, so they have disappeared from the server.

I contacted BT and have been in a web conversation with one of their technical people for over an hour.  They are of course saying this is not a glitch in the BT system but I am not so sure.  Whilst checking various things as requested by the technical help person all my emails in my Inbox received before the end of January 2025 disappeared before my eyes!  I did not delete anything nor did I change any settings.  I have no rules set up on my inbox and I don't have any auto-forward rules set either.

This happened last year for a time too.  I would lose everything that was received in my Inbox more than a month previously and then sometime later things stopped being deleted.

I realise my emails have gone forever, but apart from putting all emails received into a subfolder, how do I prevent this from happening again?  Its like an auto-delete has been set up.  BT are adamant there isn't a problem at their end but I don't believe them.  Things like this should not randomly happen.

[gg30340]

There is no auto delete on BTMail webmail so that would not be the cause of your issue.

If you have checked the forum regarding this you may have noticed that it commonly happens to users who use the Outlook email client and this appears to happen although not always when Outlook is updated.

I suspect that your email apps, Outlook and BTMail app are set up as IMAP accounts and as such they synchronise with each device that they are on and with the BT servers webmail (using a browser). This of course means that if something is deleted from one device it will show as such on all devices and webmail hence the reason you could not find the email on the BT servers.

If however you have at least one of your devices set up with either Outlook or the BTMail app set up as a POP3 account it may be that the POP3 account is set to delete the emails from the server after they have been downloaded by the email client/app.  I suspect that this is not likely because if it was the case that device would still have all the Inbox contents and only the IMAP accounts and BT servers would have the Inbox contents deleted although it might be worth checking that all your devices are IMAP.

I do not use Outlook or the BTMail app, instead preferring the Thunderbird email client on PCs and Laptops and the Bluemail email app on mobile devices so I am unable to point you in the right direction but it may be that either Outlook or the BTMail app has a setting to auto delete the emails after a certain time. 

[Fergusonsfolly]

Similar happened to me today.

All incoming emails since 2018 have disappeared from my inbox.

All emails prior to 2018 and back to 20-6 are still there.

Similar happened to me a few years back and was never resolved.

[gg30340]

@Fergusonsfolly 

The last time you posted about this happening you were advised to use an email client and back up your emails so that in the event of the emails going missing again you would be able to restore them. Presumably you did not do that.

Not much use to you now but in future you are best not to use the Inbox, Sent folder or Trash folder as storage folders.

You should instead create new folders, naming them appropriately and if you wish to keep emails move them into a folder you have created. 

[jerry_Tomson]

It sounds like your emails are being automatically deleted or archived, possibly due to a setting in Outlook, BT Mail, or an email synchronization issue. Here are some steps you can take to prevent this from happening again:

1. Check Your Outlook Settings

Since you use Outlook with an SMTP connection, it's possible that Outlook is managing your email storage. Try these steps:

• Check AutoArchive Settings:

  1. Open Outlook and go to File > Options > Advanced

  2. Under "AutoArchive," click AutoArchive Settings and see if old emails are being automatically deleted or moved to another folder.

• Check Retention Policies:

  1. Right-click on your Inbox > Properties

  2. Go to Policy or AutoArchive tab

  3. See if a retention policy is applied that deletes old emails automatically.

2. Check BT Mail Web Settings

Since the emails disappeared from the BT Mail web interface, it suggests that something is happening at the server level.

• Check "Deleted Items" & "Trash" Folder: Sometimes, emails get moved instead of permanently deleted.

• Check POP3/IMAP Settings:

  1. Log in to your BT Mail web portal

  2. Look for Settings > Mail > POP and IMAP

  3. If you use POP3 instead of IMAP, it might be set to delete messages after downloading them to Outlook.

3. Check Email Sync Across Devices

• If your Android device uses BT Mail, check its sync settings. Some email apps have auto-delete options for older emails.

• If your PC Outlook is set up with POP3, change it to IMAP to keep emails synced across devices.

4. Try a Different Email Client Temporarily

To test if Outlook is the issue, set up your email in another email client (e.g., Thunderbird) and see if emails disappear again.

5. Enable Email Backups

Since this happened before, consider:

• Creating a Rule in Outlook to auto-move incoming emails to a local folder.

• Forwarding emails to another account as a backup.

If the issue persists, push BT for further investigation or consider migrating to a different email provider for better reliability.

[Fergusonsfolly]

Yes, understand all that, but it does not explain why it occurs for me and many other users.

[Elimin]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have checked and there is no AutoArchive set up and there is no retention policy either. I have an old laptop running an older version of Outlook through a POP3 link but having checked that, there is no Auto Delete/Archive on that either. Outlook is very rarely opened on that laptop and I managed to view some of the missing emails on there that it had downloaded some months ago. I am reluctant to changer that link to SMTP as that will sync it with my other devices and the emails may disappear from there too. When this happened last year, Microsoft were adamant it wasn't anything to do with them.
My Android phone running the BT Mail app doesn't have anything set up to Auto Delete old emails.

I could try a different email client but will have to wait at least a month before emails start disappearing again. (I have moved the most recent emails that I can't afford to lose to another folder.) Creating an auto-move rule is probably my next move. I am trying to push BT to investigate further but they are effectively shrugging their shoulders and declaring its nothing to do with them. Moving to a different email provider is obviously the last thing to do but changing email addresses will be a complete pain when you consider how many people and organisations need informing of the change.

[Fergusonsfolly]

Thanks for advice.

I do not use Outlook on any of my devices.

My BTmail is set up as IMAP on my Iphone

I do have BTmail on an Android device - will check the settings.