Outlook365 - Sent items missing

Allan J. Ashinoff 526 Reputation points
2023-04-23T05:27:39.98+00:00

Recently I moved a small business (7 users) to Office 365 Standard after directing their MX to Microsoft and setting up their email accounts. I had no issue backing up their mailboxes, changing licenses from their old versions to their new, connecting to their new post office using the new email addresses and even importing their prior mailbox PSTs into the new profile on the local install. Everyone can send and receive email but I do have a user who appears to have lost access to his sent items from his former mailbox which imported without error.

What I've tried.

  1. switch profiles back his old one to verify the sent items were there (they are)
  2. Export again from the old profile (done 4x over two days), then switch to the current profile and re-import (no sent items all 4x).
  3. Uninstall office completely. Login to Outlook.com as the user and re-download and install office anew, and then attempt to re-import each of the backup PSTs (failed consistently)
  4. Attempted (last ditch) to view ANY of the PST files as as open data file to view the former inbox and its sub-folders, including sent items. In each of those sent items folders I see nothing. Still, in the prior profile I see the sent items???

I've run out of ideas and really need to get this sorted out (naturally he's the president of the company).

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business
Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For business | Windows
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3 answers

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  1. Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,376 Reputation points Moderator
    2023-04-26T05:49:06.86+00:00

    UPDATE: I've managed a very poor workaround to at least see the Sent items for this user. Instead of creating a PST file I chose to create a CSV file.

    Thanks @Allan J. Ashinoff for the share!

    Just out of curiosity, have you checked if the size of the exported PST file is seemingly normal?
    And what if opening the PST file in the former Outlook profile, is it empty as well?

    By the way, what's the type of the former email account? If it's an IMAP account, after opening the PST file, please go to View > Change view > IMAP Messages and see if the items can be seen:
    1

    2 people found this answer helpful.

  2. Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,376 Reputation points Moderator
    2023-04-24T05:35:23.5633333+00:00

    Hi @Allan J. Ashinoff,

    So, you meant for the problematic user, the Sent Items folder is visible in his new Outlook profile but there's no item there although you've tried importing PST to it, right?
    Could you try performing a search within the entire mailbox in the new profile using some keywords of mails in the original Sent items folder? This helps eliminate whether the mails were imported into any other folders for some unknown reason.

    Export again from the old profile (done 4x over two days), then switch to the current profile and re-import (no sent items all 4x).

    Did you export and import the entire mailbox? If this is the case, I'd recommend trying to export and then import the Sent Items folder only and see if there would be any difference:
    Selece "Sent Items" folder only when exporting to PST file:
    1

    Should the issue persist after re-importing the PST file of the Sent Items folder, another though is to open the PST file in the new Outlook profile via File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File:
    2

    If the mails can be seen properly, you can select all items using CTR+A, then drag and drop to the Sent Items folder of the mailbox:
    3


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  3. Allan J. Ashinoff 526 Reputation points
    2023-04-25T17:06:36.3366667+00:00

    UPDATE: I've managed a very poor workaround to at least see the Sent items for this user. Instead of creating a PST file I chose to create a CSV file. The CSV allowed for the imported data to be seen in the appropriate folder BUT there is no sent/received date on any of the items. When I checked the fields collected there was no sent/received date on any of that content.

    Having migrated mailboxes in a full exchange server environment with many more mailboxes and outlook using end-users more than a few times over the years, I'm disappointed with Microsoft that this in issue using MS products. Further, and more egregious, I'm disappointed at Microsoft and its reluctance to address and resolve the matter.

    I have access to the source content in its original profile on each system. I have pulled CSV files of the sent items today and have multiple PSTs from each system stored locally and on my thumb drive.

    While this shouldn't be happening, I need additional strategies to try to resolve this and its already long past due.

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