# Computer question. Where did the emails go? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549 "2018-04-17T00:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/1 "2018-04-17T00:41:01Z")
My friend is in town, and at my home. He’s asked me if I can assist with a mystery. Last August, he got a new Dell Inspiron laptop, and successfully transferred all of his old emails to it. This week he has been traveling, so he brought his laptop along. He was visiting another friend in Northern California last week, and noticed that his email inbox seemed a little empty. A more in-depth look revealed that he has nothing in his folders older than January 16, 2018. He is running on Windows 10, and allowing automatic updates. He SHOULD have emails going back to and through 2012. He doesn’t recall exactly the last time he actually confirmed that they were there, but he can confirm that they were migrated over. I checked his “Deleted emails” folder and found a handful that he doesn’t recall deleting (along with some 160 that he does), but even among those, they only dated from 2017 Anyone have any insights into what might have happened, and more importantly, can this be reversed, and the emails recovered? Also, how? TIA. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/2 "2018-04-17T00:47:31Z")
What application is he using to read his email? Because the way my company has Outlook configured, it only shows email, by default, back one year. The older mail is still there, but doesn’t download unless you explicitly select the button to show older messages. It’s probably no coincidence that January 16, 2018 is exactly three months ago. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/3 "2018-04-17T00:55:17Z")
We need more details on the mail service (Office 365? Gmail?) and application (web? Outlook?). But my suspicion is he has auto-archive running. Check the Archive folder. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/4 "2018-04-17T00:58:03Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > We need more details on the mail service (Office 365? Gmail?) and application (web? Outlook?). > > But my suspicion is he has auto-archive running. Check the Archive folder. Or deleted from other machines and synced via IMAP. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/5 "2018-04-17T02:15:25Z")
Sorry, forgot. Office Outlook. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/6 "2018-04-17T02:18:49Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > We need more details on the mail service (Office 365? Gmail?) and application (web? Outlook?). > > But my suspicion is he has auto-archive running. Check the Archive folder. I looked. It asked me if I wanted to configure it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/7 "2018-04-17T02:20:52Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > Or deleted from other machines and synced via IMAP. That’s a BAD thing, right? ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/8 "2018-04-17T02:22:58Z")
I thought emails were stored in the cloud. After all, I can (theoretically, anyway) check my email account from any computer. At work, I have to switch computers frequently, and I’ve never lost Outlook emails. (Bookmarks, on the other hand…) ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/9 "2018-04-17T02:24:29Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > That’s a BAD thing, right? Bad for his prospects of recovering those deleted emails perhaps. Good for his disk space usage. On a more serious note, I’d check archive and deleted items folders, and then perhaps see if the email administrator(s) have backups that they can recover them from. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/10 "2018-04-17T02:26:01Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > I thought emails were stored in the cloud. After all, I can (theoretically, anyway) check my email account from any computer. > > At work, I have to switch computers frequently, and I’ve never lost Outlook emails. (Bookmarks, on the other hand…) “It depends” on things like your mail server, the connection method you use, etc. Usually that’s the case though. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/11 "2018-04-17T02:55:25Z")
Outlook data files have \*.pst or \*.ost extensions. Run a search looking for those on his hard drive. He may just need to re-map to the older data files. _fingers crossed_ [This page](https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm#locate) goes into more detail, including some information on how to recover (maybe) from IMAP. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/12 "2018-04-17T02:57:51Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Sorry, forgot. Office Outlook. I bet it’s Outlook’s AutoArchive function. If configed to run, it will periodically move all items older than some age (the default is 3 months) into the Archive location. You can find the location of the Archive folder or file in the settings. If you have Outlook configured to the use SMTP, then items are copied locally. It can either leave items on the server or delete them after copying, depending on your settings. Deleting an item locally will not delete it from the server (unless it happens as part of the download). If you use IMAP, then items are synced between the server and locally, so deleting them in one place will delete them in the other. As you can see, the answer could be a lot of different things depending in how everything is set up. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/13 "2018-04-17T02:59:43Z")
Oops, just noticed you said auto archive isn’t configured. As **SD** says, maybe they were originally loaded into a different file. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/14 "2018-04-17T03:15:01Z")
Take a look at [this article](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2733062/only-a-subset-of-your-exchange-mailbox-items-are-synchronized-in-outlo), “Only a subset of your Exchange mailbox items are synchronized in Outlook 2016 or 2013”. The information only applies if you’re using an Exchange server mailbox, but it might explain what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-where-did-the-emails-go/812549/15 "2018-04-17T03:20:11Z")
Can he log into his email provider’s website, whether that’s Gmail/Yahoo/Apple/his ISP, and check from there via their webmail interface?