Request to Recover Missing Emails

Question

My email account was hacked on March 6, but I was able to recover it and secure the account. After regaining access, I noticed that many of my emails are missing.

These emails are very important to me because they contain personal files, documents, and memories from many years.

I tried to contact your support team, but I was not able to find the correct way to reach you. Could you please send me screenshots or clear steps showing how I can contact support and recover my emails?

Answer 1

Dear @Noura Alayouni,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I understand what happened to your account and upsetting it can be to regain access after a security incident and then discover that important emails, containing personal documents and memories are missing.

Firstly, I recommend you check for hidden rules or forwarding. Sometimes, inbox rules to hide or delete emails.

• Go to Settings > Mail > Rules and remove any rules you did not create. For reference: Manage email messages by using rules in Outlook
• Also check Forwarding rule and make sure no unknown address is listed. For reference: Use rules to automatically forward messages

Secondly, since your question is tagged under Education, I assume the affected mailbox is an education (school‑provided) account.

In this case, Microsoft Support is usually limited in what they can do directly, as the account and mailbox are fully managed by your school. I strongly recommend that you contact your school’s IT administrator or helpdesk for further troubleshooting.

Your school IT admin has access to advanced tools such as eDiscovery and Content Search, which can be used to search for and potentially recover missing emails, especially in situations involving accidental deletion or security incidents. For reference: Create a search for a case in eDiscovery, Finding content in mailboxes in eDiscovery and Find and delete email messages in eDiscovery

Moreover, to help us narrow down what happened and determine the best next steps, could you please help clarify the following:

• May I please confirm again that the affected account in your question is a personal Microsoft account (Outlook.com / Hotmail / Live), or a work or school account provided by an organization?
• If you are using business account, are you the admin? Can you access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center?
• When did you first notice the emails were missing? Was it immediately after you regained access, or sometime later?
• Is this happening when accessing the mailbox via Outlook on the web, Outlook desktop, other mobile, or multiple devices? If possible, please confirm whether the issue looks the same on Outlook on the web.
• Have you checked the following locations in Outlook: Deleted Items, “Recover items deleted from this folder”, Archive, Junk Email, and Any custom folders you previously used

Note: Please understand that as a forum moderator, my role is to provide general guidance and troubleshooting support. I don’t have access to internal systems or backend tools, and I appreciate your understanding of these limits.

I hope the information is helpful. Once I have the additional information you provided, I will guide you the best way to recover your missing emails

The first response may not always resolve the issue right away, but with your help and more details, we can work toward a solution.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I'm looking forward for your reply.

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