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I am missing emails/folders

Do you feel there are emails and/or folders that are missing from your mailbox?

What to do:

1. If you are using a client (e.g. Outlook 2010), then open your mailbox via the web instead to see if there are any discrepancies when it comes to what is visible.

  • If there are differences, then close down the mailbox that has less folders/emails visible and re-open it (trying to refresh the pull of data from the server). Sometimes you may have to give it some time before re-opening your mailbox to get it to refresh in full.
  • If there are no differences, then continue with this checklist.

2. Check your Deleted Items folder to see if they have been accidentally deleted.

In Outlook 2010 and the web version: If it is a folder there may be a little white triangle to the left of the folder name - click on this to show sub-folders (see screenshots)

White triangle to show collapsed sub folder

Visible sub folder






3. If your mailbox folder structure is not too large and you are missing a folder, have a look around your mailbox to see if the folder has got accidentally dragged into another folder.

Click on all the white triangles (see screenshots) so you are seeing all the sub-folders.

4. If you remember any words that were part of a missing email message, then use the search facility to search. Ideally search 'All Outlook Items' so it covers the whole mailbox. If the missing email message comes up in the results, then it should also identify which folder it is located in within your mailbox.

5. Go into Deleted Items folder and go through the procedure of recovering deleted items to see if the missing emails appear in the list to recover.

Unfortunately if none of the above has resulted in you finding your missing emails/folders then it is most likely they are irretrievable.