My kitten was on my keyboard. Now all today's emails in my Outlook inbox are gone.

Question

My kitten was on my keyboard. Now all today's emails in my Outlook inbox are gone. How can I recover them?

Answer 1

Dear Lisa,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to assist you.

Based on your post regarding with "My kitten was on my keyboard. Now all today's emails in my Outlook inbox are gone. " Outlook Emails can disappear or go missing from inbox because of the common reason such as Configuration settings problem, improper filter option, accidental deletion, Inactivity and compromised outlook account. May I confirm that you get this situation in both outlook for desktop and https://outlook.office.com?

 Check with below methods maybe it can help to recover your email:

Method 1: Check the Junk Email folder (sometimes messages are mistakenly marked as junk by other email apps)

• Check your Junk folder see if the message is there. If the message has been moved incorrectly to this folder,
• select the message and then select Not junk > Not junk.
• If you're using the Outlook for iOS or Outlook for Android apps, go to the Junk Email folder, select the message and select … > Move to Inbox.
• If you're using a mobile browser, go the Junk Email folder, select the message and select …> Mark as not junk.

Method 2: Check the Other tab (If Focused Inbox is turned on for your account, the message might be in the Other tab)

• Select the Other tab and see if the message is there.
• If the message has been moved incorrectly to the other tab, select the message and select Move to > Move to Focused inbox.

Method 3: Check the Deleted Items folder (Make sure the missing message isn't in your Deleted Item folder)

• If the message has been moved incorrectly to this folder, select the message and then select Restore
• If you're using the Outlook for iOS or Outlook for Android apps or a mobile browser, go to the Deleted Items folder, select the message and select … > Move to folder-- > Inbox.
• If you don't see the message in the Deleted Items folder, the message might have been removed but is still recoverable. In Deleted Items, above the message list, select Recover items deleted from this folder. If you find the message, select it and then select Restore.

Method 4: Check the Filter menu (If you're filtering your message list, the message you're looking for might not appear)

• To change your filtering options, select Filter above the message list and select All
• If you're using the Outlook for iOS or Outlook for Android apps or a mobile browser, the current filter selection appears above the message list. To clear the filter selection, select it above the message list.

Method 5: Check your rules (You might have created an Inbox rule or a Sweep rule that's moving messages to another folder)

• Go to Rule Settings and check your rules. If you find a rule that's incorrectly moving messages out of your inbox, select Edit Icon to edit the rule or Delete icon to delete it.

Note: You must use a computer to view and edit your rules.

Method 6: Check the Archive folder

• Make sure the missing message isn't in your Archive Folder. If you want to move an archived message back to your inbox, select the message and then select Move to > Inbox.
• If you're using the Outlook for iOS or Outlook for Android apps or a mobile browser, go to the Archive folder, select the message and select … > Move to folder > Inbox.

Method 7: if you have O365 business account check with Content Search

• If you are not an Admin you need to contact Admin to perform content search for you.
• For Exporting content search here is your reference Export a Content search report - Microsoft Purview (compliance) | Microsoft Learn

Note: To access to the Content search tool in the compliance portal (to run searches and preview results and export results), an administrator, compliance officer, or eDiscovery manager must be a member of the eDiscovery Manager role group in the compliance portal. 

Try the above method one by one check if it works if the above methods None solved your issues, would you mind offering me below information:

• Which type of Account are you Using? Is It IMAP, POP or Exchange Account?
• May I please know the browser are you using?
• Which version of Outlook are you using? File--> Office Account--> About Outlook.

Am Looking forward to your response.

Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Inema | Microsoft Community Moderator