All my emails have disappeared in my inbox

Question

I woke up this morning to find that all of my emails in my inbox are gone. My email is a hotmail address and using Outlook. No issues last night and this morning they are gone. Please help as I have important emails that I need access to. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Why do some of my emails just seem to dissapear??? What is going on and WHY???

Answer 2

Hi Keith,

Thank you for reaching out!

My name is Stefano, a Microsoft fellow user as you, and it’s my pleasure to assist you today.

I’m really sorry you’re facing this issue.

Many users in the last months have experienced your same problem and many discussion threads have been opened for that issue.

Please, follow the next steps in order to troubleshoot and hopefully restore them:

1: Check the “Deleted Items” and “Archive” Folders

Sometimes emails are moved automatically by filters or mistakenly deleted.

• Go to Outlook.com and sign in.
• Check:

-Deleted Items

-Junk Email

-Archive

-If you find the emails there, select them and click “Move to Inbox.”

2: Use “Recover Deleted Emails”

If emails were permanently deleted within the past 30 days, Outlook may allow recovery.

-Open Deleted Items folder.

-Scroll to the bottom and click “Recover items deleted from this folder”.

-Select emails you want to recover, then click Restore.

3: Check Email Rules and Filters

Rules may have automatically moved or deleted messages.

-In Outlook.com, go to Settings > Mail > Rules.

-Look for any rules that could have affected your inbox.

-Disable or delete suspicious ones.

4: Check “Focused Inbox” and “Other”

Outlook uses Focused/Other inbox filtering.

Click “Other” next to “Focused” to see if emails are hidden there.

5: Check on Another Device or via Web

Sometimes apps (like Mail or Outlook desktop) show a different sync view.

Try logging in via Outlook.com in a browser.

Or check using the Outlook app on mobile.

6: Review Connected Accounts or Forwarding

-Go to Settings > Mail > Sync email.

See if mail is being forwarded or pulled into another account.

7: Check for Unauthorized Access

Your account may have been accessed without your knowledge.

-Go to https://account.live.com/activity

-Review recent sign-in activity.

If anything suspicious, change your password immediately.

__

Please, see the Microsoft official support article about this topic,

Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/email-is-missing-from-your-outlook-com-inbox-c70b4a9a-caa5-4e8c-a88a-3372215af25e