Disappearing mail

Question

As from today, any mail that arrives in my outlook inbox disappears after a few minutes after reading.

What's going on and where have they gone?

Answer 1

Hello, I’m Virginia a fellow windows user.

It sounds like there’s a rule or setting to hide read messages enabled. Are you using Outlook online, Outlook mail app or Outlook via Office?

Check to see if any message rules have been enabled which may have been set up.

If things were working correctly a few days ago but no longer then either something has updated & changed a setting or someone may have accessed your account & changed a setting. If you can sign in online check your account security & check for any unknown log ins.

Answer 2

New messages disappearing shortly after being read are almost always being moved or hidden by filters, rules, or folder views rather than being deleted.

Check the following in Outlook.com / Outlook on the web:

1. Check Focused/Other and filters

• If Focused Inbox is on, open both Focused and Other tabs to see if messages are being moved there automatically.
• At the top of the message list, select Filter and choose All so nothing is hidden by date, unread state, or other filters.

2. Check rules and Sweep

• Go to your Rules settings and review all Inbox and Sweep rules.
• Look for any rule that moves or deletes messages after they arrive (for example, moving them to another folder like RSS, Archive, or a custom folder).
• Edit or delete any rule that is incorrectly moving messages out of the Inbox.

3. Check Archive and Deleted Items

• Open the Archive folder and see if the “disappeared” messages are there. If so, select the message and choose Move to > Inbox.
• Open Deleted Items and look for the messages. If found, select them and choose Restore.
• If not visible in Deleted Items, select Recover items deleted from this folder at the top of Deleted Items and restore from there if available.

4. Check for unexpected forwarding or server-side changes

• If messages are being forwarded, verify that any forwarding rule is configured to keep a copy in the mailbox. If that option is disabled, new mail can be forwarded away and not retained in the Inbox.

5. Check recent sign-in activity

• If there is any suspicion that someone else changed rules or settings, go to the Recent activity page for the Microsoft account to review sign-ins and secure the account if needed.

If a hidden or incorrect rule is found (for example, diverting all new mail to another folder such as RSS or Archive), removing or correcting that rule should stop messages from disappearing and keep them in the Inbox.

---

References:

• Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox
• I haven't received any email in Outlook for several months - Microsoft Q&A
• Stopped receiving emails on my account. - Microsoft Q&A