It is very possible to recover missing emails in Gmail. Whether the messages were accidentally deleted, or just “disappeared”. One very common reason, emails get missing is that users could accidentally move or delete them. Filters and Forwards can also cause emails to disappear.
Filters: Filters direct certain emails away from your inbox to keep your messages organized. In doing this, certain incoming messages may be redirected.
To review Filter settings, a person has to;
- Select the gear icon
- Select Settings
- Tap or click ” Filters and blocked addresses “
Forwards: One could be forwarding emails to another address without realizing it. To review Forward Settings we;
- Select the gear icon on the top-right corner in Gmail
- Select settings, then select the forwarding and POP tab
All forwarding addresses will appear at the top of the screen. The once a person does not need can then be deleted.
RECOVERING MISSING EMAILS IN GMAIL
Several ways abound in which one can find missing emails. Such emails may have been deleted, gone to spam, archived, or other options.
To recover or search for such mails, one can:
- Check your Spam: It is very likely the email was caught by Gmail’s spam filter. To recover emails here, we
- Select spam from the left menu pane (one may have to scroll down and select “More” to reveal the spam folder
- Go through the list of emails in the spam folder. Select the checkbox next to it, then select “Not Spam”
Emails marked as spam stay in the spam folder for 30 days and then are permanently deleted. Once deleted from the spam folder, one will not be able to access them again.
- Check trash bin: It could be possible that the said missing email was accidentally sent to the trash bin. To recover such emails, we:
- Select “More” from the left-hand menu
- Select Trash
- If you find the email you are looking for, right-click (tap and hold) it, open it or select the checkbox next to it
- Select Move to inbox
Emails sent to the trash are permanently deleted after thirty days. An email deleted more than thirty days are gone forever.
- Check Social/Promotional/Update tabs: Sometimes, missing emails could be categorized as a social or promotional email. In obtaining emails from here, simply
- Select either the social, promotional or update tabs
- Click and drag selected emails here to the primary inbox
- Review Archive Emails: There are times when emails could have been archived without a person knowing about it. This is made known when archived emails are reviewed. Reviewing archived emails include;
- Select “More” in the navigation panel
- Select “All Mail”
- Select the emails you want to return to the inbox
- Select “Move to inbox”
- Using Gmail Search Functions: A person can use Gmail’s built-in search function to find missing emails quickly. This is done by entering the email subject, original sender, recipient, or body of the text. The search function could be used within folders to narrow down the results.
- Contact Google’s Support Team: Google’s Support team may be able to help especially in cases involving a hacked account or when an email has been maliciously deleted. The need for contacting Google’s support team arises when all other attempts at recovering a missing email fail. Information such as the date one noticed the email or emails were missing and other related information help the team in recovery such emails. The Google support team can dig up lost emails.
