Windows 10: Move / Dragged Emails Disappear

I think I know why emails have disappeared so my question is more of "any way to get them back"

Windows 10 Pro x64 1909 / Outlook 365

The mail account is a gmail account connected via IMAP (using 2-factor authentication if that matters)

I decided to clean up the gmail account and 'archive' a lot of emails I have for the tax prep volunteering we do. Seemed like a good time as of course like everyone else we're suspended, maybe for the rest of 2019 taxes.

So I created a PST just for the tax emails. I clicked/dragged one folder (not sure if holding ctrl key) from the OST to the PST. The folder was created on the PST but was empty. Unfortunately so was the source/OST folder.

No matter what source, or how I copied or moved, any email I put in the new folder disappeared.

After much fiddling about, I think I found the problem. It was dragging the folder. So I copied the name of the folder, deleted it, then did a "new Folder" in the PST and pasted the name in so it was identical. Now mail moves or copies from the OST to the PST just fine. So it seems that that creating a folder in the PST by dragging from the IMAP/OST file caused the problem.

Any thoughts on recovering the missing emails?


- - - - -

A bit more but I suspect it is irrelevant. At the time, I thought I would delete the account and recreate it and maybe that would fix the problem. Removed the account just fine. But I could not re-add it. Outlook consistently told me it could not connect to gmail. This was despite creating numerous OST files (every time I tried) and actually sending its normal test message to the gmail account. About 20 times trying their automated as well as manual settings. I tried 365 support but it was getting late last night and only one response in the first half hour so I gave that up. I had saved the original OST so I deleted all the new bogus ones, put back the saved OST, and then restored the system drive figuring Outlook account info is in the registry and I don't keep any data on the 'C' drive. And that went fine. Outlook came up with all my accounts working normally, but my missing emails are of course still missing.

:)

 

files disappear during move/drag when a notification popped up in Win10

I was moving 4 files from one folder to another folder using the drag and drop method on my laptop. During the drag before I even got out of the original directory I received a popup notification. This did something and took the focus from my drag causing the files to disappear. I was currently in the menu area to make the file list move upward toward the folders but was not in the folder area yet. The files simply disappeared! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
They did not go back to the original directory and I checked the few bottom folders to see if maybe they went there. I could not access the undo move feature as the op had not completed.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

 

Disappearing Emails

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



Provide us additional information to assist you better with this issue:

1. Which email client are you referring to?
   
2. Are you referring to notification which occurs on action center?
   

This behavior occurs because there may be a rule that is moving incoming messages to another folder in the Folder list or mailbox. If you are using Outlook and you are receiving the E-mail notification in the system tray,
then I would suggest you to refer this article
for more information about this issue.

You may also try the below suggested step clean the current views to check the emails again. To do so,

1. Press Windows + R key. Type in “outlook.exe /cleanviews” and press
   Enter.
   
2. This will restore default views and the custom views you had will be lost.
   

Hope it helps.



Muralidhar

Microsoft Community Moderator

 

Drag and Drop

Hi Charles,

the steps you suggested didn't work for me but, when pressing the escape key it somehow expanded the drive and by using drag and drop to the single file in the list worked.

In the past I could drag and drop multiple folders onto the drive on the network computer(s). Doing it on individual folders will take far too long and time consuming and is not an option.

Microsoft should be able to identify what is blocking it and issue a fix.

My machine is multi boot so tomorrow I will try with Windows 7.

Many thanks for your help,

Deric