Sent emails have disappeared

[JonMed]

I have just discovered all of my sent items on btinternet.com have disappeared prior to 9 April. 

I also have discovered on this forum that this is a common event and that if the server is showing there is no record there probably isn't.

However I do have another MacBook which still shows all of the sent items. I want to know if there is a way to get that back-up version to reinstate all my sent items on the server and/or my current MacBook?

I see that moderators have been involved on this issue in the past on a private basis so request one to help me here please. I have called customer support in Falkirk and they just said there was nothing BT could do.

Thanks

Jon

[gg30340]

The moderators no longer have access to accounts so will not be able to help other than tell you to contact the BTMail email Team. You were correctly informed by the Falkirk CS. If the emails are not on the BT servers it means they are gone and can not be recovered.

When did you change to your "new" MacBook, was it about the same time as the emails have gone missing from the BT servers?

How do you access your email account on your "new" Macbook. Is it with a web browser or do you use an email client/app and if so is it set up as an IMAP account or a POP3 account?

How are the emails on your "back up" MacBook stored. Are they contained with in an email client/app and do you know if the email client/app is set up as an IMAP or POP3 account?

If it is an IMAP account and your backup MacBook is working correctly the BT Server should synchronise with the IMAP account and either restore the sent email that are on your MacBook or there is a chance that what ever caused the emails to be lost from the BT servers causes the account to synchronise  and you end up losing them when it synchronises.

If your backup MacBook email client/app is set up as a POP3 account only the emails that were sent from that MacBook would be in its sent folder. This is because a POP3 account does not synchronise with the BT server so the sent emails would not be available to the BT servers to be lost from the servers.    

[mahammadsutar81]

All sent items on my BTInternet account before April 9th have disappeared from the server and my primary MacBook. Crucially, a secondary MacBook does still show these sent emails. Is there a procedure to sync/upload this local backup back to the BT server or my primary Mac? Seeking moderator assistance please, as suggested in other threads. Customer support was unable to resolve this.

[licquorice]

Perhaps if you and @JonMed (or are you the same person) were to answer the questions posed by @gg30340 we might be able to help.

[JonMed]

Hi gg

Thanks for your response. Let me try and respond to your questions in turn:

1. I upgraded to the 'new' Macbook in 2023, so well before the disappearance of sent items on 9 April 25

2. The new macbook is set up as a IMAP account within the Mail app

3. The old macbook was set up as a IMAP account within the Mail app

On the point in your 4th para - yes this is why i'm cautious. I have changed the password on my btinternet mail account on the server and on the new Macbook. This now means the old Macbook can't sync to the server. I am wary of resetting the password on the old macbook in case the server wipes that folder also and am looking for an answer as to whether the BT server will take what is in the old macbook as the sent items or carry on thinking it is best to delete everything prior to 9 April?

In the meantime i have tried to copy the sent items in the old macbook to a new folder 'On my Mac' within the old macbook. This seemed to work (2,500 items copied across) but it didn't copy any attachments, even though attachments do come up in the offline old sent items folder. So the new folder only has text versions of these items which is obviously better than nothing.

Thanks again for your help and interest in supporting this query

JonMed

[JonMed]

To clarify, i am a different user to mahammadsutar81, but it does look like we have identical issues. 

BT CS went very quiet when i raised the date/time/issue and just said they can't help with disappearance of emails.

[licquorice]

You could try this.

On your old MacBook download a different email client to the one already on it, Thunderbird say, create the account on that and then copy (not move in order to preserve the existing mails) and then see if that syncs to the server. If the mails appear on the server you can then sync the original client. Hope that makes sense.