Missing Mail

Question

Last Friday the 6th Feb I contacted your support team regarding a Phishing Email I received and opened it. I spoke to Shivam and he told me not to worry about it and did not ask me to change p/words or anything. I told him that I opened the email and he said it was okay just delete them. On 7th Feb my Hotmail email was hacked, I changed my email password gained access to my account, my current mail was not coming through, I requested a callback and someone called Mampatna a manager dealt with me. He instructed me on what to do in the setting which included deleting somethings. The emails are coming through BUT I told him that I could not see my historic email both in Inbox and Sent bock and he said to give it a few hours form them to come through , BUT my Hotmail historic sent and some received emails was not come back through and I am not getting the help I need, since the 10th Feb I have been requesting call backs and I am being messed about, apparently `I need IN APP support to solve this problem and each time I request a call back and the call back come through I am being cut off, they have my number but they re not calling back when the call has been cut off, not sure if they are cutting the call deliberately. I would like to complain about this inefficient service and would like a manager to call me back promptly please on <PII removed> to fix this problem. These emails are vital to respond to and refer back to

Answer 1

Hello,

Hello,

Make sure you do this on a computer, not on smartphone or tablet. Go to https://www.outlook.com and log in, click on the gear icon on the top right to launch the settings.

Then, on the Mail tab, go to Rules. Are there any rules set up here? If yes, delete them all.

Then check the conditional format, again, if it's there, delete it.

Then, check Forwarding and IMAP, If any items are present, delete them as well.

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If you can't find anything, go to https://account.live.com > Your info > Sign in Preferences. Make sure to check all the aliases here. If you don't recognize any there, delete it.

Then go to Security > Manage How I sign in, make sure all contact info is yours. Then scroll down on the same page, look under App Password, click on remove existing app passwords as well.

Please make sure you change your password and enable two-step verficiation.

Go to your account online, go to Devices, remove any devices you don't recognize.

Then go to Security, click on Sign out everywhere. This is meant to kill any session that's still connected. Unfortunately, this one will take 24 hours to take effect.

Then, take one step further - Go to your Microsoft account online https://account.live.com> Sign in > Your info > Sign in preference. Add an alias - You have two options here:

Create new: this will allow you to use the native domain outlook.com to create a new alias.

Add existing: this will allow you to add a 3rd party email address, such as yahoo, gmail, as long as they are not already associated with another Microsoft account.

Once added, make this new alias your primary alias, do NOT delete the old alias. Then at the bottom, click on "Change sign in preference". On the next page, uncheck the box for the old alias. This means, from now one, the old alias cannot be used to sign into your Microsoft account, but it can be still used to receive emails, etc.

Answer 2

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Hello Lin Morgan,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

I am very sorry to hear about the stressful week you have had. It is completely understandable that you are upset about the missing historic emails and the service interruptions.

Note: This is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back‑end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas. I am unable to make outgoing calls or schedule managers to call you directly from here.

However, I can guide you through the specific steps to try and recover those missing historic emails and ensure your account is actually clean, as the "In-App" support team would likely advise.

1. Check the "Recoverable Items" Folder

If the previous agent or the hacker deleted emails, they might not be in the standard Deleted Items folder, but they might still be recoverable from the server.

• Go to the Deleted Items folder.
• Look at the top of the message list for a link that says "Recover items deleted from this folder".
• Click that link. If you see your historic emails there, you can select them and choose Restore

2. Check for "Hidden" Rules

A very common tactic used by hackers is to create "Rules" that automatically move or delete incoming mail so you don't see their activity. Even if you changed your password, these rules often remain active.

• Go to Settings (the gear icon) > Mail > Rules.
• Look carefully for any rules you did not create. Common names used by hackers include "." (a single dot), "archive," or "official."
• If you see anything suspicious, Delete the rule.

3. Check Sync Settings

Sometimes the emails are on the server, but the view is restricted to show only recent items to save space.

• If you are using the Outlook Desktop App, go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings.
• Double-click your email address.
• Look for a slider called "Mail to keep offline.
• Ensure this is set to "All" rather than "1 year" or "6 months."

4. How to Reach "In-App" Support Successfully

Since the phone callbacks are getting cut off (which can happen due to connection timeouts or system glitches), the "In-App" support is often more stable because it is chat/email-based within the Outlook system.

• Log in to Outlook.com on a web browser.
• Click the Help (?) icon at the top right.
• Type "Missing Emails" in the search box on the right.
• Scroll to the bottom of the results and you will see "Still need help?". Select Yes

This should open a text box where you can type your issue. This goes directly to the specialized Outlook.com safety team who can look at the server side of your account.

I truly hope you are able to recover your data and get this resolved quickly. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have other questions.

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