# Mystery keystroke combination to make emails disappear?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 22, 2022, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065 "2022-08-22T05:39:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/1 "2022-08-22T05:39:43Z")
Background: Windows 10, Chrome browser, Xfinity Connect (Comcast) email application. Keyboard is Logitech wireless ERGO keyboard.
This has happened twice to me recently and once a while back – while moving my keyboard to one side as the email application In box was the active window, I apparently touched some key or key combination that caused one or more emails from my In box to disappear. I checked **all** my folders (including the obvious ones like Trash and Spam) and they are just gone.
I’m guessing that the keys I touched are along the left edge, so some combination of Esc, Tab, Shift, Ctrl and possibly another key that I’m not sure what it is, it says “opt” and “start.”
Do you know what this key combination was? Of course I really need to be more careful, or minimize windows or something when I move my keyboard, but it might help to know what I was doing.
Also, is there any chance these emails could be recovered?
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/2 "2022-08-22T08:34:46Z")
I don’t know if this will help, but apparently it’s happened before:
[Comcast emails disappearing in the Inbox | Xfinity Community Forum](https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/comcast-emails-disappearing-in-the-inbox/60334b6bc5375f08cd6e80b0)
I would contact Comcast…
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### Author:  [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/3 "2022-08-22T08:40:33Z")
This has happened to me with Thunderbird and the keyboard shortcut was SHIFT+DELETE.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/4 "2022-08-22T10:38:59Z")
When it happens, does CTRL-Z undo the action?
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/5 "2022-08-22T15:22:24Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> does CTRL-Z undo the action?
I never even thought of that.
> [@glee](#):
>
> apparently it’s happened before:
Thanks for the link, there’s some useful information in there, although the smarmy Comcast rep took the discussion offline and never came back to the forum with any explanation or advice. In any case it seems to be still going on over a year later.
Maybe I need to switch to a 3rd party front end application for my email. Any suggestions out there?
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/6 "2022-08-22T22:25:18Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#):
>
> This has happened to me with Thunderbird and the keyboard shortcut was SHIFT+DELETE.
The Delete key is commonly used to delete things; it usually sends them to someplace like the Trash folder, the Recycle Bin, etc. (from which they can be recovered, if needed).
And it’s also common in software to have Shift + Delete (sometimes Cntl + Delete) delete them, without first moving a copy to the temporary hold location. Like when you’re deleting a file/folder that’s too big for the recycle bin to hold it.
So it’s likely that your email software does this immediate delete for the Shift + Delete keystroke.
And it’s generally irreversible – Cntl-Z can’t recover it.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/7 "2022-08-22T23:23:33Z")
I tried Shift+Delete on my Comcast application, and it just moved the message into the trash, as if I had clicked the Delete button. So that isn’t what I did to cause my emails to disappear.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2022, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/8 "2022-08-23T19:12:05Z")
This happened to me the other day. Turns out the inbox got shuffled to “alphabetically” (or something) instead of “most recent” and the new message was waaaay down the page.
Me and Tech are Not Good Friends.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2022, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/9 "2022-08-23T19:18:36Z")
I used to be good friends with tech, but we’ve grown apart.
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### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-keystroke-combination-to-make-emails-disappear/970065/10 "2022-08-23T19:32:21Z")
Hello, you called?