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Old emails are missing following the Outlook switch

Hello,

After automatically being switched from Hotmail to Outlook I noticed that many years of saved emails are missing from my inbox and several other folders. I did NOT delete these items, as in they were never deleted, my account was never hacked into and I used it everyday so they were not older than 365 days.
From the looks of the forum it is confirmed that many people have the same problem. Please do not provide the copy paste answer referenced above as it is not the solution to our problems.
Please be serious and responsible in helping me out with this issue.

Looking forward to hear from you in a timely manner and a productive fashion.
Best,
Egemen 

Hi Egemen,

 

It is a pleasure to help you with your issue in finding your emails. Let's find out what are the possible options that we can do to resolve your issue.

 

By upgrading to Outlook.com, you are only upgrading the user interface of Hotmail to the new user interface. Under normal circumstances, all your emails should still stay in your Inbox.

 

We would like to know more about your issue. To isolate your issue, please answer the following questions:

  • When was the account switched to Outlook.com?
  • Did the data loss occur right after Outlook.com upgrade or was the data still there for a brief time?
  • Did you have issues logging in before noticing data loss – did you have to reset your password to regain access?
  • Did you click on any link before the issue occurred?
  • Did you try to deactivate or downgrade to Hotmail.com before the issue occurred?

Please post the affected email address in the private message area I created so that we can check it out.

I created a private message area that asks for more information. Click on “You have a private reply to this message" link just above your post to view the message. You have to sign in to Microsoft Community forum to view it.

 

Best regards,
Mark M.
Forum Moderator

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Hello,


Here are the answers to your questions:
  • I do not know the exact date of the account switch. I logged in one day and there it was. I did not receive a warning message prior the switch, nor was I asked to switch manually. I did not even know about this switch before it literally happened.
  • I noticed the data was missing approx 10 days after the switch happened. Was it there for a brief period, I do not know. I was searching for an email I needed information from and I noticed I don't have emails prior to 01/30/2013. That is how I realized.
  • No, not at all
  • No.
  • No.

 Looking forward to hear from you.

 Best

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Hi egemenpekoz,

 

Thank you for providing these information. You may also try to use the auto-restore feature in Outlook to restore your lost emails. Outlook will recover as many messages as possible and put them in your Deleted folder. It will not guarantee that all of your missing email messages will be available. If you don't see the deleted messages that you wanted, it means they are permanently lost. Our system can only restore recently deleted emails and emails that are still available on our server, beyond that won't be possible.

 

If you cannot recover your emails, here are the possible reasons why emails lost from one's account:

  • If the feature Conversation Threading feature is turned on. Click here for details.
  • If you are accessing your account via mail client or mobile phone, I suggest that you enable the option to "leave a copy on the server".

Also, I would like to know if you still remember the range of dates and the name of the folder where these lost emails are saved.

 

We are hoping for your response.

 

Thank you.

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Hello,

This is certainly not good at all.

  • If the feature Conversation Threading feature is turned on. Click here for details.
  • If you are accessing your account via mail client or mobile phone, I suggest that you enable the option to "leave a copy on the server"

The above situations do not apply to my account at all.
The range of dates are from the beginning of the account, which was in the very early 2000s up until 01/30/2013 so it is quite a range. They were lost from my inbox. There is nothing left in my inbox prior to 01/30/2013.

Please include in your response an outlet through Microsoft where I can escalate this case to as it is quite unacceptable as service provided and actions taken. It is my understanding that there are a substantial amount of users having the same problem which is a royal reputation issue for Microsoft

Also please include detailed account deleting information in the case my issue is not resolved since it would suggest that your services are no longer at all reliable.

Best,

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Hi egemenpekoz,

 

I've checked your account and found that you've accessed your account through an e-mail client using POP3 Protocol. This may be the reason why you've lost your e-mails. When using POP3, e-mails are downloaded to your e-mail client and are automatically deleted from the Hotmail server if you forgot to enable the "Leave a copy of messages on server" option.

 

I suggest that you do the following:
1. Check your account's configuration in your e-mail client and enable the Leave a copy of messages on server option to avoid losing e-mails.
2. Check your e-mail client's Inbox for your missing e-mails.

 

If you’ve already tried using the auto restore option but failed to recover all/some of your emails; those unrecovered emails are already purged from our system.

 

If you need further assistance, feel free to post back

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I don't see how to look into either of these options.  I too lost tons of emails with this conversion but I just looked at my emails and noticed that I have emails missing again. I only have 4 pages of emails that are all in September.  I don't have any emails prior to September.  Where did they go??  Can someone help me with trying the above options?   I do have an iphone that I often check for emails too.

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Hi CheriContes,

Thank you for posting your issue in Microsoft Community.

We understand your concern about missing emails on your account and we will assist you. We suggest to create a thread of your own so that we could investigate your account separately. 

Note: I'll be locking this thread now for future replies For others who are having the same issue, please create another thread. Your cooperation and understanding is highly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Question Info

Last updated September 30, 2021 Views 854 Applies to: