Can't see all but my last three days emails!

[FlickerOfLife]

I've opened Outlook, as usual, today but found that I can only see the last three days of email. I normally see loads (going back some years!)

I'd like to find them. Can anyone help?

I have Windows 10 version 1703, build 15063.540 64 bit and I'm running Outlook version 14.0.7194.5000 32 bit.

[DaveLembke]

if you logon to e-mail provider through something other than outlook ( such as through their web browser interface ) you might still have access to them. There is a setting in option for outlook to set how long e-mail remain before deletion.

[FlickerOfLife]

Thanks for the reply Dave. 

I've gone onto webmail and there is a similar loss of email, which sort of suggests that this is an issue for my ISP as I've not deleted email from my webmail account. They are now looking into it so I hope, at worst, that they have archived it and can restore it.  However, it's a little worrying that the email downloaded to my PC's Outlook account in the past has gone as well!  I should be able to find it!  I've not knowingly deleted any emails from my PC and there are none in my recycle box.

Thanks for the info on deletion times in Outlook.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in my version of Outlook.

[DaveLembke]

Which version of outlook do you have and one of us can point out where the setting is for you to check on it?

[BC_Programmer]

There is a setting in option for outlook to set how long e-mail remain before deletion.

The closest thing is Autoarchive, which can be configured to delete items. It's highly unlikely though, to be something a user can enable by accident as it involves several radio buttons and checkboxes.

[FlickerOfLife]

Thanks for the replies. I'm running Outlook version 14.0.7194.5000 32 bit.

[rjbinney]

When you say "only see last three days" - is that just your Inbox? Or are your Deleted and Sent items gone? Do you have any archived folders? Is there mail in there?

I don't know if this is contingent on whether or not this is an IMAP or POP3 account, but, here's a shot in the dark:

You likely have a file called "[your_email_address@yourISP].ost" in your \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook subdirectory.

Before doing anything else, make a copy of that and put it somewhere safe - that may or may not be an archive of your emails, and the more you sync, the more you risk damaging it.

Most likely, if the ISP did something funny it would have synced the funniness back with your machine, making it think it's OK to delete those messages.

Now, here's where the luck comes in - do you archive your machine? Go to the archive nearest before (but not after) you observed the deletion, and restore that .ost file. Now rebuild Outlook using that as the mailbox.

You may not have everything, but....

[FlickerOfLife]

Thanks for the reply.

You're right the sent and deleted files seem to have gone missing as well.  I can't see the sent and deleted buttons anymore. 

I'm not brilliant at finding stuff so to try and find the [your_email_address@yourISP].ost file, I just put this into the search bar but nothing came up.