How to Find Missing/Disappearing Emails in Outlook?

Methods to Fix the Problem of Disappearing Emails in Outlook

MS Outlook is undoubtedly one of the best desktop email clients. However, this email client also has several issues just like other email clients. One such problem is the missing of some emails from the Inbox folder. Many Outlook users face this problem frequently. These emails do not necessarily be the older ones; even the recent emails could also disappear from the inbox. If you are into business and deal with clients, missing an email could land you in a compromising situation. In this article, we have mentioned all the possible reasons and ways that will help you to overcome this problem.

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Reasons Why Emails Disappear Suddenly From the Inbox

There are many reasons why your emails are missing from the inbox. While you can retrieve most of the emails successfully, there is a possibility that you might not be able to retrieve many.

Problem related to configuration settings

There are chances that the app has some issues in the POP or IMAP settings of your account. This usually happens when you accidentally make any mistake while configuring the settings.

Deleting Emails Unknowingly

Other possible reasons for emails missing from your mailbox could be the accidental deletion of emails. You might not realize this and look out for reasons for the problem. Another problem could be the configuration in your mobile and the outlook is synced too. If you are unaware of the sync, you are deleting the emails when they are getting deleted from the account.

Not Being Active On The Application

Another reason for the disappearance of the emails could be your inactivity from the application for a certain period.

Filter Option Not Set Correctly

In case you have applied the wrong filters, you might not be able to access the emails that are a few days old. You will be unable to access those emails' attachments and related files.

Unauthorized access of Outlook Accounts

The last reason why you can't access the emails could be a result of your hacked Outlook Account, i.e. it is used by an unauthorized party. For that purpose, you must try changing your password to come out of this situation.

How Manual Methods Help in this Problem

Now you must have understood the major reasons behind the disappearance of some of the emails from the Outlook Inbox. To come out of this problem, let us now discuss the solutions that include both manual methods and the use of a professional tool.

Solution 1: Do Not Forget to check the deleted items folder

If you are unable to find a few emails in your Outlook mailbox, in that case, you might have deleted those emails accidentally. These deleted emails of the inbox do not get permanently removed from the mailbox right away. Rather, these emails get saved in the Deleted Items Folder. Hence, if you want to retrieve these deleted emails back in the Outlook Mailbox, head towards the Deleted Items Folder and recover all these emails from there.

Solution 2: Set Up Filters Correctly

There are chances when then filters become the reason behind the disappearance of the emails. To come out of this issue, you need to change the filter settings. Follow the below-mentioned steps to change the filter settings:

• Begin with launching Microsoft Outlook and click on the View tab.
• In the View area, you have to click on the View Settings button.
• In the new Advanced View Settings dialogue box, hit the Filter tab.
• Now, a new Filter dialogue box will appear, click on the More Choices tab.
• Check if any filter box is checked, if yes then uncheck all those boxes and click on the Oktab.

Solution 3: Search emails with the help of Advanced Find

If you are unable to find the emails that were earlier present in the Outlook mailbox, you may search them with the Advanced Find feature of Outlook. To do so, follow the below-mentioned steps:

• Launch the Microsoft Outlook and head towards Inbox.
• In the top section, hit the Search box that will activate the Search Tools tab.
• Now, click on the Search tools drop-down and choose Advance Find thereafter.
• Once done, you have to enter all the required details of the emails that want to search and retrieve. You will see three categories for that matter; select one that suits you the most.

Solution 4: Begin by Exporting Old mail history, followed by Creating a New Outlook Profile, and Importing Old mail history.

You can export all the old emails and import them back to a new Microsoft Outlook Profile. This way you can bring all the disappeared emails back to your Outlook mailbox. Here are the steps that will help you to perform this method:

A. Exporting Old Mail history

• At first, you need to export the old mail history to bring back the lost emails.
• Launch the Microsoft Outlook application
• Now locate the File menu and click on that. Once done, select the Open & Export option.
• Select Export/Import from the menu of Open & Export.
• Once done, select the Export option from the Import and Export Wizard dialogue box.
• Select Outlook data file (.pst) from Export to a File dialogue box.
• Now select the mail account that requires these changes
• Once you have selected the mailbox, make sure that the Include Subfolders option is checked, if not click on the box to check it.
• Click on the Next button to proceed
• You will now see a new dialogue box. Click on the Browse button and select the location where you want to export the file and give it a name of your preference.
• The next step is to select a particular option from the given ones and click on the Finish button to end the process.

Once finished, you must be able to see those disappeared emails again.

B. Creating a New Outlook Profile

• If you wish to create a new Microsoft Outlook Profile, you have to open Control Panel. Follow the below-mentioned steps to process further;
• Now that you have entered in the Control Panel, locate the Mail icon and click on it to proceed further
• Once you have a dialog box in front of you, click on the Show Profiles option.
• Click on the Add tab to create a new profile.
• Add a profile name of your choice and hit the Ok button
• Follow all the on-screen instructions and provide all the details as required to create a new Microsoft Outlook profile.

C. Importing Old Mail History

This is the last step that will help you to retrieve all the lost emails to the newly created Outlook profile. To begin with this process, you must follow all the below-mentioned steps;

• To begin, click on the File menu, and under this header, select Open & Export from the given options.
• Once done, select the Import/Export option from the list.
• Now you will have a dialogue box in front of you. Select Import from another program or file and press on the Next button.
• Click on the Outlook Data file (.pst) from the list of other options available
• Hit the Next button to proceed further.
• Now in the next step, click on the Browse button.

Once done, you will have to search the file that you saved while performing the export function, select that file and wait for the history to sync properly. Once the system notifies you that all folders are up to date, you can now easily open your Outlook mailbox that will have all the emails in the mailbox.

As mentioned above, this was the last solution to retrieve the deleted emails from the mailbox. However, if you have noticed, all the above-mentioned solutions and their steps were a bit complicated and might confuse. Hence, it is recommended to use a third-party or a professional tool to overcome this problem.

How to recover permanently deleted emails easily?

The above-mentioned methods and their solutions are too technical and thus boring. This is the reason we suggest you focus on using a professional tool to retrieve these emails. You can use Softaken for Outlook PST Repair for this purpose. This tool will help you to recover all the permanently deleted emails and will also help you to repair all the corrupted files and save them into a PST file. Users can also try a free version of this tool that provides limited access to most of the features of this amazing tool.

Conclusion:

In this blog, we tried to cover all the possible reasons that result in the disappearance of the emails. Apart from the reasons, we have also mentioned all the required methods and their steps to overcome this problem. However, upon looking at the steps of the manual methods, it is clear that these manual methods are very complicated and complex and thus can confuse the user in their technologies. This is the reason why we suggest all the users begin using Softaken for Outlook PST Repair. This tool has all the features required for executing the process in the best possible manner. Users may also download its trial version to experience the tool.