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Missing draft email (saved several times)

Hi Microsoft,
    This is a question which has been asked many times by other users but I'd like to ask it again.
I work in an IT department and one of our clients has come to me with a question regarding his Hotmail account.
He had been working on an email and had been repeatedly saving it in his draft folder.  It has now disappeared.   From having looked at the previous posts on this issue, let me preempt you and point out that the:
        Has done a complete search of his Inbox, Sent, Deleted folders and found nothing so the mail was never moved to a different folder
        Has repeatedly saved the document as he worked on it
        Has not deleted the mail
        Has not sent the mail.

He has saved it repeatedly over the past few days as he worked on it but it disappeared yesterday.

I could maybe understand this issue if he hadn't repeatedly saved it and it was purged from the system but I find it strange that he has saved it over and over again and it has now disappeared.


Many thanks for any assistance which you can provide because alot of work has gone into the member's email.

Justin Forde.
Nice detailed post Justin,
The below might work...

What should I do if email messages are missing from my Outlook.com account?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Outlook.com/how-recover-deleted-messages  

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Hi Justin81,

 

Thank you for posting your concern here in Microsoft Community and we apologize for the delayed response.

 

I would just like to add to a great start up trouble-shooting article JMH3143. MS - MVP. has provided. You may also want to do a quick check if there is a mail rule set to auto-delete. You can follow the guide below;

 

1. Login to your Outlook.com account.

2. Click on the Gear icon on the upper right hand corner (beside your account name).

3. Access More mail settings.

4. Locate Customizing Outlook section and click on Rules for sorting new messages.

5. See if there are any rules to create to delete draft mails automatically.

 

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Regards,

Roland

Everything will be ok, if it's not ok then it's not the end.

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Hi Roland, Dyami & Wanikiya,
           The user had previously gone through his Deleted Items but I have passed your suggestions on in any case, just in case he's missed anything. 
In reply to the question of Rules in his account, he has replied with the following:

Hi Justin,

 

Thanks for that. 

 

I have followed those instructions and there is definitely no rule to automatically delete draft mails. On the contrary, prior to this my drafts have always been automatically (or manually) saved.

 

The email I kept saving as a draft from time to time as I updated it over a number of weeks until Saturday 30 November 2013 was entitled "Article 40 Cases" and was a summary of Irish case law, not just in relation to Article 40 cases, but criminal cases generally. I had put several days of solid work into it. If I didn't press "save" it used to auto-save anyway, but some time between Saturday 30 November 2013 and Wednesday 4 December 2013 it disappeared, and I don't know why or how.  I tried pressing "Ctrl" + "h" to locate it but without success. I was using Google Chrome as my browser. I tried the links ("Lost a message? When you recover deleted messages, we bring back as many as we can. Learn more") at the bottom of my "deleted" folder, and numerous deleted messages were recovered, including ones older than five days, but unfortunately not the one I was looking for, which I last worked on on Saturday 30 November, before noon.

 

I just want a specific answer as to whether it is possible to retrieve my missing draft, and, if so, how.

 

I would be willing to pay a modest fee to get my work back.

 

Thank you very much for your assistance.

 

Kind regards,

David

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Hi Roland,  JMH3143. MS - MVP, 
     Could you also direct me to this article?  When I go to that link, I see several articles but I can't see one which deals with issue.

Many thanks for your help,
Justin.

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Last updated September 30, 2021 Views 102 Applies to: