Pinned emails missing

Question

Hello, about a month ago all my pinned emails went missing when checking my email online (hotmail.com). Luckily, I was able to search for them and find them - which was great as I had one very important email in there. Today, however, I am unable to find that very important email no matter what I do. I cleared my cache and recovered deleted emails, but I cannot find that one very important email. Help me!

Answer 1

Hi Julia Najera,

I understand that the missing message is important and that the suggested search and recovery steps have not located it.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors cannot access your mailbox, restore messages, or review account-level records.

You mentioned that you tried all the suggested steps from Q&A Assist answer. The guidance is generally appropriate, so I would like to add one check that it did not mention: in Outlook.com, select Sort, make sure the Inbox is sorted by Date, and then check the top of the message list. Pinned messages are displayed at the top only when the Inbox is sorted by date. Flag emails for follow up or pin a message in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support

If the message still cannot be found, contact Outlook.com support so that the support team can review the mailbox-related information available to them:

1. Go to Outlook.com and sign in.  
2. Select the Help icon, the question mark, in the upper-right corner. 
3. In the Help pane that opens, search for "email management", then press Enter.   
4. Scroll down the page until you see "Still need help?", click Yes.   
5. Choose "Chat with a support agent in your web browser."  
6. Review the issue description and confirm an email address you can access. 
7. Click Confirm to create the service request. The screen will indicate that your request has been submitted and the system is connecting you to Outlook.com live chat support, which may take a moment to load.  

The official instructions are available in How to get support for Outlook.com.

I hope the additional sorting check or Outlook.com support can help determine what happened to the message.

Answer 2

Since the pinned messages were previously searchable but now one important message is no longer found, use this recovery path in Outlook.com:

1. In Outlook.com, use the Search box and search by the sender address, exact subject words, or a unique word from the message body.
2. In the search box, make sure the scope is All folders so the message can be found outside the Inbox.
3. Check these folders directly:
   • Deleted Items
   • Archive
   • Junk Email
   • Other tab if Focused Inbox is enabled
4. In Deleted Items, select Recover items deleted from this folder at the top of the message list. If the message appears there, select it and choose Restore.
5. Check whether a rule moved the message automatically:
   • Open Rules settings and review any Inbox or Sweep rules.
   • Remove or edit any rule that is moving messages out of the Inbox unexpectedly.
6. Check whether Outlook is set to empty deleted items when signing out:
   • Go to Settings > Message handling
   • Under When signing out, make sure Empty my deleted items folder is unchecked
7. If there is any concern that the account was accessed by someone else, review the Microsoft account Recent activity page for unexpected sign-ins.

Important limits:

• Messages removed from Deleted Items are recoverable for 30 days.
• Messages in Junk Email are automatically deleted after 30 days.
• The Recoverable Items view is not available in a mobile browser; use a PC or Mac.
• If the message is not in any folder, not found by Search with All folders, and not available under Recover items deleted from this folder, Outlook.com may no longer be able to restore it.

If these steps do not locate the message, use Help in Outlook.com and go to Still need help? to contact support.

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