Are My Emails Vanishing?
It can be very frustrating to have an email one day, and not be able to find it the next. It can also be annoying for your business! Sometimes an email can disappear before you have even read it. Meaning a potential business opportunity or sale has been lost.
Most of the time, messages will have ended up in the wrong folder by accident. Either you click the wrong button, or your mail server moves an email to Spam or Trash automatically.
Emails seem to disappear from your inbox for a few reasons:
- Messages have been flagged incorrectly.
- You have accidentally deleted the email.
- You have accidentally filed emails in the wrong folder.
- Messages have been accidentally archived.
With that being said, the best places to look for emails are within the archived, deleted and junk or spam folders. Be sure to check your settings so emails aren’t deleted forever.
Why Are My Emails Disappearing from My Inbox?
Most of the time your messages can be found within the Spam or Trash folder. Or you may have filters in place which automatically move messages to different folders.
There are some other reasons your emails go missing depending on your mail service provider. The following steps will help you find your messages.
Why Have My Emails Disappeared from my Gmail Inbox?
If your Gmail emails are disappearing, have a look in the following places first.
- Have they been forwarded to a different email address?
To check forwarding addresses, click the gear icon and head into See all settings.
Then click Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Delete any addresses you don’t want.
- Look in the Spam, Trash, or Archive folder.
Any messages in the Spam or Trash folder are permanently deleted after 30 days. If an email has been deleted, you might be able to recover it by using Gmail Message Recovery Tool.
Head into these folders and scroll until you find your missing email. Click the message and move it back to your mailbox.
- Gmail filters may have moved emails.
Check which filters you have set up within your settings. To do this click the gear icon, then choose See all settings.
Click Filters and Blocked Addresses. From here, edit, remove or add filters to organise your emails.
- Check the Social, Promotions, or Updates tabs.
Emails are sometimes automatically categorised and put into one of these tabs.
Click on a tab and scroll until you find your missing email. Click the message and choose to move to another folder or Inbox.
- Use Gmail Search.
The best way to find a missing email is to search for it. Use the search bar at the top to find a missing message. Search for the sender, body text or subject line.
Check out our other guides about Why your Gmail is not receiving emails and how Gmail search operators work.
Why Have My Outlook Emails Disappeared from My Inbox?
Emails have disappeared from your Outlook mailbox because they have been moved to another folder accidentally, or automatically.
Here’s what to do if your Outlook emails are disappearing from your inbox.
First, look within the following folders:
- Archive – Messages may have been moved here automatically.
- Deleted Items – Beware! Emails in this folder may have been deleted.
- Junk Email – Outlook may have moved an email to Junk if they think it has untrustworthy information.
To find an email within a suspected folder:
- Open the folder like Deleted Items.
- Use the scroll to locate the missing email.
- If you cannot find the message, use the search bar to locate your missing message.
Maximise your search by:
- Type in words or a phrase included in the missing email.
- Use the dropdown box on the left to refine the search, i.e., search in unread mail.
- Then arrange the search by different factors, i.e., the date, or ‘from’ address.
Once you have found the email, move it back to the original folder by clicking the Move to icon within the ribbon at the top. Or drag and drop the email to the correct folder within the navigation bar.
Why Have My Emails Disappeared from My iCloud Inbox?
Emails can disappear from your iCloud inbox from your mobile due to the same reasons as above, or there’s an issue with your phone.
Here are a few ways you can get your missing emails back for iCloud.
- Log out of your email account → Restart your phone → Log back in.
Hopefully, after rebooting your iPhone, missing emails should reappear in your mailbox.
- Delete an email account from iCloud → Reboot your phone → Add the account back to iCloud.
Check if emails have reappeared.
- Set Mail as No Limit. Go into Settings → Mail, contacts, calendars → Tap on your account → Click Mail Days to Sync → Set as No Limit.
This will sync all previous emails from your address and should hopefully bring back any missing ones!
If your emails are still missing after checking folders and carrying out the above steps, get in touch with Apple Support.
Why Yahoo Emails Disappeared from Inbox?
Yahoo emails disappearing from inbox can happen often due to the reasons previously mentioned, or for Yahoo users, emails may go missing for the following reasons:
- Synchronization issues
- Incorrect setup of Yahoo
- Not enough space to store new messages
If you have accidentally deleted an email in Yahoo, you only have 7 days to retrieve it before it’s permanently deleted.
To retrieve missing emails in Yahoo if they have been deleted:
- Head into the Trash folder before 7 days
Find the email you want to recover → Click the checkbox next to the message → Choose Move and select inbox.
- Submit a Restore Request
Make sure all emails are deleted from the Trash folder first. Then, send the Restore Request → follow the steps to fill out the form.
- Fix Connection Issues
Your internet connection can affect emails being sent and received. Check the speed of your connection and figure out if there are any problems.
- Check Yahoo settings
Check your Yahoo settings to see if you need to update the following.
- Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server
- Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server
- Login Details
Use Clean Email to Organise Your Mailbox
Although Clean Email cannot make it clear why your emails have disappeared, it can help create an organised mailbox to avoid misplacing emails in the future!
Clean Email is free to try and available to anyone using an email provider with IMAP. In the case of missing emails, you will be able to find them with the help of Clean Email’s search bar.
💡 Note: Clean Email doesn’t work with the Spam folder.
Besides, here is how you can benefit from using the app’s best features:
With Auto Clean, you can create any automated rules to avoid carrying out manual tasks. For example, you can set up an automatic rule to send messages from a certain sender to Trash once they reach your inbox.
To do this, simply select the message you want to apply a rule to. Click the Create Rule button at the action bar and follow the steps.
The Smart Folders feature bundle similar messages into their own categories (serve like labels). So, when you want to view certain emails, you can select the corresponding Smart Folder.
For example, all messages related to online shopping will be under ‘Online shopping’ folder. You can then refine your search by choosing to order from oldest to newest and more!
The Unsubscriber tool allows you to quickly remove your mail address from all unwanted mailing lists. Head into the Unsubscriber view in the left-side toolbar to show all email subscriptions.
Choose to unsubscribe, move certain newsletters to the Read Later folder, or keep receiving the subscription.
Wondering to get more email tips and tricks? Learn why your emails may be queued and why your emails are going to spam.
Emails Disappeared From Inbox - FAQs
Can emails disappear from your inbox?
Yes, emails may seem to disappear from your inbox if you have accidentally deleted them or moved them to another folder.
Why did my emails suddenly disappear?
Emails may have been filtered by your email service, moving them to another folder. Another reason is that you don’t have enough storage for new messages.
Why are my emails not showing up in my inbox?
Check your email filters, they may have automatically been moved to a different folder, or accidentally marked as spam.
Why do my Gmail emails keep disappearing?
Gmail may be incorrectly marking incoming emails as spam and moving them straight to your Spam folder. Other factors could be loss of internet connection or little storage.
