I cannot see my old emails on outlook.

Question

How do I get my old emails back I cant seem to see them on my Hotmail email, more then

5 years old is what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

Hi hardev singh

I understand you can’t find emails older than 5 years in your Hotmail/Outlook.com mailbox.

If you haven’t signed in to your Outlook.com mailbox at least once in a one‑year period, Microsoft can close the mailbox and delete all email; and you must sign in to your Microsoft account at least once every two years to keep the account active. If there was a long period of inactivity years ago, those older emails may no longer exist to recover.

See: Microsoft account activity policy - Microsoft Support 

If the emails are 5+ years old and were deleted long ago, they won’t be recoverable. 

If at any point you used classic Outlook and exported/archived mail to a .pst file, those messages would be stored locally and won’t appear in Outlook.com unless imported back into a mailbox. Check any old computer/drive/backup for a .pst that contains your historical mail.  

I know this is not the outcome you wanted. Thank you for your understanding and time.

Answer 2

For Outlook.com/Hotmail, check these areas to find older email:

1. Check filters

• In the message list, select Filter and make sure All is selected so older messages are not hidden by filters like Unread or Date.

2. Check other folders

• Look in Archive, Deleted Items, and any custom folders in case rules or manual moves took messages out of Inbox.
• To move an archived message back, open the Archive folder, select the message, then Move to > Inbox.

3. Check rules

• Go to Outlook.com Rules settings and review Inbox and Sweep rules.
• If a rule is moving or deleting messages, edit or delete that rule.

4. Check account activity and possible compromise

• If there is concern that someone else accessed the account and deleted or moved mail, go to the Recent activity page for the Microsoft account to review sign-ins and security events.

If messages older than 5 years were permanently deleted or the account itself was inactive and removed according to Microsoft’s retention policies, those messages cannot be recovered.

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References:

• Email is missing from your Outlook.com inbox
• Attempting to access old email - Microsoft Q&A
• Deleted hotmail email address from account - can I get it back? - Microsoft Q&A
• MSN email issues - Microsoft Q&A