Sending, receiving, and organizing email in Outlook.com
Please reply with these details if you still need help
- Can you find any email from 2010 or earlier using this search?Received:01/01/2009..12/31/2009
- Are the missing emails from Inbox only, or are Sent Items also missing before 12/27/2010?
- Did you ever use Outlook desktop, Windows Live Mail, POP, or an old computer with this account?
- Do you have any old .pst backup files?
Meanwhile, follow these steps:
1) Search all Outlook.com folders by date
- Sign in to Outlook.com Mail.
- In the search box at the top, search by date range using this format: Received:01/01/2009..12/31/2009
- If you know the sender, subject, or a word from the message, combine it with the date search. For example: From:someone@example.com Received:01/01/2009..12/31/2009 Subject:"invoice" Received:01/01/2009..12/31/2009
- Outlook.com searches All folders by default, but you can also use the search filter to check specific folders such as Inbox, Sent Items, Archive, Deleted Items, and Junk Email. See: Search Mail and People in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
2) Check Deleted Items and Recoverable Items
- Open Deleted Items.
- Search for the old messages there.
- If they are not visible, select Recover items deleted from this folder.
- If the messages appear, select them and choose Restore.
See: Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook | Microsoft Support
3) Check whether the old mail was stored locally in Outlook
If you used the Outlook desktop app, POP, or an old computer in the past, the 2009 messages may have been downloaded and stored locally instead of remaining in Outlook.com.
To check this:
- Check any old computer or backup drive you used with Outlook.
- Search for Outlook data files ending in .pst.
- If you find a .pst file, open it in classic Outlook by going to File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File.
- Search inside the opened data file for the 2009 messages.
See: Open and find items in an Outlook Data File (.pst) | Microsoft Support
4) If the messages are still not found
If the emails do not appear in any Outlook.com folder, Deleted Items recovery, or any old local .pst backup, they may not be recoverable.
Please tell me how it goes. If the problem persists, please don’t hesitate to reply to this thread and I will be happy to help. Have a lovely day!
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