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Gmail Help

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Newmacer2

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 14, 2009
216
84
Denver Colorado
Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong forum, but I didn't see one specifically for my problem. I went into my Gmail account this morning to find many of my emails deleted. I had folders set up for my emails that I need to reference quite often, like for my bank account, my credit card account, etc. Some of these emails were very old, but very important to me. These folders are empty and I'm devastated.

Has anyone else had this problem? I admit I'm not that great at cleaning out my emails, but Google had no right to delete them as I consider them my personal property.

Thanks in advance for your interest in my problem.
 
What app are you using to access your gmail account?
An internet browser (accessing as webmail) (Which browser?)
Or, using your Mac's mail app? or some other email app (such as Thunderbird, etc.)
 
Log into Gmail in a computer browser and click on "Details" in the bottom right corner of the page to check the recent activity connecting to the Gmail account. See if there's anything out of the ordinary.
 
DeltaMac said:
What app are you using to access your gmail account?
An internet browser (accessing as webmail) (Which browser?)
Or, using your Mac's mail app? or some other email app (such as Thunderbird, etc.)
Click to expand...
I'm using the Gmail app on my phone and iPad. I use either Firefox or Chrome on my computer.
On my phone and iPad I use Safari. I've not changed this for many years and have never had this problem. I cannot see the lost emails on any of my equipment. I've never used my iMac's mail app.
 
BrianBaughn said:
Log into Gmail in a computer browser and click on "Details" in the bottom right corner of the page to check the recent activity connecting to the Gmail account. See if there's anything out of the ordinary.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I did as you said and don't see anything unusual as far as I know.
 
Newmacer2 said:
Thank you. I did as you said and don't see anything unusual as far as I know.
Click to expand...
If everything is OK with what then you can have more confidence that no one has accessed your Gmail.

The emails are missing on the webmail site also, correct? Did you search for them and/or look through the All Mail folder?
 
BrianBaughn said:
If everything is OK with what then you can have more confidence that no one has accessed your Gmail.

The emails are missing on the webmail site also, correct? Did you search for them and/or look through the All Mail folder?
Click to expand...
Yes to all your questions. They’re gone. One of the folders that’s completely empty now contains email attachments of my checkbook spreadsheets, which is really disastrous. I was counting on that to help with taxes when I sell my house this year. Expenses on our house.
I’ve contacted Google but I doubt I’ll hear back.
 
This is a scenario I haven't considered before. I've always thought I'd probably use webmail if I only had one email account but I wasn't considering the backup aspect. Extracting emails from your Mac's backups can be a real pain but if you don't download them to an app on the Mac in the first place no home backup will contain them.
 
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On Ventura one can go into Stem Preferences->Internet Accounts and make sure the Google Account is setup correctly for ail if you choose as well as other service to turn off or one of your choice!
 
OP wrote:
"One of the folders that’s completely empty now contains email attachments of my checkbook spreadsheets, which is really disastrous. I was counting on that to help with taxes when I sell my house this year. Expenses on our house."

ummmm...
If you don't mind my saying so, this is really not the way to be storing sensitive information like that.

It should be kept ON A DRIVE that is UNDER YOUR DIRECT CONTROL.
And backed up on one or two more drives that are ALSO under your control.

I would re-think things for the future...
 
if you access your gmail via the IMAP protocol you don't get all mail, only the most recent ones. Via the website you can see more. I had this problem once .. took me quite a while before I figured out that one.
 
SjoukeW said:
if you access your gmail via the IMAP protocol you don't get all mail, only the most recent ones. Via the website you can see more. I had this problem once .. took me quite a while before I figured out that one.
Click to expand...
I'm going to really show my ignorance now but I don't know what IMAP means. Anyway, until this week I've been able to access ALL my emails on my iPhone, iPad and my iMac (via the website). But I do appreciate the information SjoukeW.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"One of the folders that’s completely empty now contains email attachments of my checkbook spreadsheets, which is really disastrous. I was counting on that to help with taxes when I sell my house this year. Expenses on our house."

ummmm...
If you don't mind my saying so, this is really not the way to be storing sensitive information like that.

It should be kept ON A DRIVE that is UNDER YOUR DIRECT CONTROL.
And backed up on one or two more drives that are ALSO under your control.

I would re-think things for the future...
Click to expand...
I don't mind at all Fishrrman and you are 100% correct. Stupid me. However, as for the future, I'm afraid there's not that much left. I'm nearly 80, which is why I'm trying to cover all my tracks before I go to the giant email server in the sky.
 
Newmacer2 said:
I'm going to really show my ignorance now but I don't know what IMAP means. Anyway, until this week I've been able to access ALL my emails on my iPhone, iPad and my iMac (via the website). But I do appreciate the information SjoukeW.
Click to expand...
IMAP is the protocol spoken between a mail server and a mail client like Apple mail or Mozilla thunderbird.
Officially you get all mail which such a protocol. Only google decided to deviate from it 😖
 
OP:

You might try signing into Gmail using a web browser (rather than an email app, like "Mail").

Then start scrolling and exploring, like Sjouke says above.

It might work.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

You might try signing into Gmail using a web browser (rather than an email app, like "Mail").

Then start scrolling and exploring, like Sjouke says above.

It might work.
Click to expand...
Oh, I've done that, several times. With Firefox and Chrome. I even cleared the cache and tried it again. No luck. But thanks for your suggestion.
 
Silvestru Hosszu said:
Did you check the deleted items/bin?
Mails just don’t dissapear like that.
Try to search also for the recovery function in gmail.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've checked every possible folder there is in my account, including trash and "All Mail". I agree emails shouldn't just disappear like that, but believe me, mine did I went into gmail's recovery function and got the following message: "Unfortunately, your missing emails were permanently deleted, and we can’t get them back."

The folders I kept my important emails in are either empty or still have a few. What's weird, for example, in one folder (2020-2022 payment confirmations), there are three from 2022 and only one from 2020. Why are most from 2020 and all from 2021 missing? Makes no sense. No, I didn't accidentally delete them. I had no reason to do that. The only time I went into that folder was to add emails.
 
Newmacer2 said:
Yes, I've checked every possible folder there is in my account, including trash and "All Mail". I agree emails shouldn't just disappear like that, but believe me, mine did I went into gmail's recovery function and got the following message: "Unfortunately, your missing emails were permanently deleted, and we can’t get them back."

The folders I kept my important emails in are either empty or still have a few. What's weird, for example, in one folder (2020-2022 payment confirmations), there are three from 2022 and only one from 2020. Why are most from 2020 and all from 2021 missing? Makes no sense. No, I didn't accidentally delete them. I had no reason to do that. The only time I went into that folder was to add emails.
Click to expand...
It sounds very strange. I would push gmail customer service to provide a solution.
There is no way they can't help.
 
Thank you Silvestru. I’ve contacted them twice with no response. there may be many others with the same problem and they’re behind. I’ll keep trying and report back here if I get a solution.
 
One other thought:
I'd consider a different email provider (rather than Gmail).

Hmmm...
This doesn't help now, but might for 2023 (since we're here already):
Create a new folder on the Mac: "Taxes 2023".
Put sub-folders into it as needed.
Put all your tax documents into them, instead of "into the email".
 
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So... silly question... but do you have your mail set to show "All" or just "Unread".
I had a user do that... couldn't figure out why emails were "Disappearing"... turns out they were there, just not shown.
 
GBaughma said:
So... silly question... but do you have your mail set to show "All" or just "Unread".
I had a user do that... couldn't figure out why emails were "Disappearing"... turns out they were there, just not shown.
Click to expand...
It’s set to “All”. My folders (where the real problem is) contained, or did contain, all opened emails. Not a silly question, by the way. I’ve made that mistake before.
 
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