Changed root folder path, permanently lost folders and messages?

You may not have lost anything and you can easily verify it by logging into the mailbox using a web browser.  Typically, changing the root path merely changes the presentation.  With Google Mail, there are other considerations as well because of the flexibility you have using the IMAP settings in the mailbox.

Usually, with Google Mail, the root folder path should be "[Gmail]" and not "Inbox".  See http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/gmailroot.htm for what I find to be a clear explanation of controlling the relationship between Google Mail's labels and Outlook's folders.

If you dragged information from one folder set in Outlook into the IMAP folder set and the sync never completed properly, then the possibility of data loss is real.  You do have backups, correct?

You may not have lost anything and you can easily verify it by logging into the mailbox using a web browser.  Typically, changing the root path merely changes the presentation.  With Google Mail, there are other considerations as well because of the flexibility you have using the IMAP settings in the mailbox.

Usually, with Google Mail, the root folder path should be "[Gmail]" and not "Inbox".  See http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/gmailroot.htm for what I find to be a clear explanation of controlling the relationship between Google Mail's labels and Outlook's folders.

If you dragged information from one folder set in Outlook into the IMAP folder set and the sync never completed properly, then the possibility of data loss is real.  You do have backups, correct?

Thanks for the reply, Brian.

We tried logging into the Work provider's web interface, and found no folders or messages corresponding to the folders that were lost (recall, originally generated by "drag-n-drop" from folders in Outlook under the Gmail IMAP account). These folders contained a mix of messages that were sent to his Gmail account or his Work account.

What's puzzling to me is that there remained a folder that clearly was an IMAP folder under his Work account and it was easy to recover and sync.

Is it likely that the other folders were somehow local and not IMAP synchronized?

Interestingly, the <Work>.ost file reports a size of ~4 MB when the properties are checked from Outlook, but in Windows Explorer the file size appears as ~16 MB.

Is it possible that all the messages and folder structure are hiding in that .ost file and that Outlook just isn't displaying them?

I set the root folder to Inbox because i was not receiving email. Same result as Nano & you are correct Brian in that no email was actually lost on GMail - it is all there in the webmail, or if you POP it.

However, I found that changing the root folder must have affected the GMail account on the server: I created new IMAP profiles on this & other computers and found that they also lost the folder structure. Moreover, I re-created the folders from backup & repeated the procedure with the same results...

Incidentally, I only found this thread after I had confirmed the cause - I was searching for "Outlook IMAP to GMail missing subfolders" and the like.

Unfortunately, setting the root folder as you, Brian, have prescribed, does not restore the folders - which confirms my theory that the GMail account gets changed somehow. That is my next avenue of investigation.

Hi Brian, has anyone found how to recover folders/messages lost in this way?

will a system restore bring them back?

I completely agree: It SHOULDN'T change anything on the server.

But, if you make the change, then change it back, you do not get your folders back. So, if we agree that there is no change on the server, then it means that those folders never existed on the server - Outlook IMAP is lying & saving permanent data in an OST that gets wiped/rebuilt at the metaphorical drop of a hat. If that is true, it completely undermines the purpose of IMAP.

I think that's what happened, because outlook 2013 hadn't synchronized with the server properly and we were trying to fix it we changed the root folder to Inbox which removed all the folders and messages and I cant seem to get them, back!!

Is there somewhere you could retrieve them?