HOW TO FIND EMAILS FROM 2015

Question

HOW TO FIND EMAILS FROM 2015

Nthekenyane, Liketso 0

Good day

I want to know how to retrieve emails from 2015-2020 from my outlook emails

Ivory 325 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-05T19:50:51.07+00:00

Hi Liketso,

I hope you're doing well despite the challenges this issue may have caused.

I'm reaching out to see if there have been any updates. I understand these things can take time, and I appreciate your continued efforts.

Whenever there's any news to share, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Wishing you all the best.

1 answer

Your answer

Ivory 325 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-08-05T19:50:51.07+00:00

Hi Liketso,

I hope you're doing well despite the challenges this issue may have caused.

I'm reaching out to see if there have been any updates. I understand these things can take time, and I appreciate your continued efforts.

Whenever there's any news to share, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Wishing you all the best.

Answer 1

Hi Liketso,

Old mail like that (2015–2020) usually isn't actually gone, if you didn't delete them. You can try the following options to find your old email.

First, since you're using Outlook on the web , please search there with the scope set to All Folders / All Mailboxes. This shows you the real, full state of your mailbox on the server, independent of anything your desktop app is doing. If the emails show up here but not in desktop Outlook, the problem is local caching, not the mail itself. If you're using Classic Outlook or New Outlook, please let me know so that I can guide you with more accuracy.

Then navigating to Settings (gear icon) > Mail > Rules and see if a rule was ever set up that automatically moved or deleted incoming mail into a folder you're not thinking to check.

If your organization has "Online Archive" enabled (common for mailboxes that were getting full), you'll see a separate mailbox node in the left folder pane, usually labeled with your name/email plus "Online Archive" or "In-Place Archive." Older mail is often moved there automatically. Expand it and check its Inbox/subfolders.

Outlook Folder List

For more information, please consult:

Manage email storage with In-Place/Online Archive mailboxes | Microsoft Support

Additionally, if your organization has a mail retention policy that purges mail after a certain age, or if the mailbox was migrated/recreated at some point since 2015, that mail may only be recoverable by an admin through a compliance content search or backup restore not something available at the user level.

I hope these information provide some information and clarity to your issue. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

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