How To Recover Permanently Deleted Emails| Gmail Missing Emails

Gmail is generally known for its reliability. Whenever you make any conversation on your Gmail account, Gmail will keep that data safe in your mailbox until you delete them yourself. 

But some users go through the “Gmail messages are missing” problem on their phone or computer. When they sign into the Gmail mailbox, they can’t find the emails in the Gmail inbox or other folders. At the same time, Account owners claim that they haven’t deleted a single message from their account. 

So the question comes to everyone’s mind, If they haven’t deleted any messages, then why are the emails disappearing from Gmail, and is there any way to recover the deleted emails. 

Recover permanentely deleted emails, Gmail missing emails

Why have my emails disappeared (missing) from my Gmail inbox?

Usually, Email disappears from the Gmail account because of the filter problem when you have marked all incoming emails as Spam, and they will disappear from the inbox. 

But sometimes, some other objects can also be responsible for missing emails from the Gmail inbox problem. 

  • You have assigned a filter to delete all incoming or outgoing emails. 
  •  Emails are being forwarded to some third-party email address. 
  • Pop3 servers are activated. 
  • Anonymous persons have deleted the emails from your account. 
  • No internet access to the router or computer. 

How To Recover Missing Or Permanently Deleted Emails on Gmail?

When new messages are missing from Gmail’s inbox, there are chances that Gmail is not receiving emails because of technical flaws or server issues. So you should wait 15 minutes before you begin the process of recovering the missing emails.  

Review The Spam/ Trash Folder- 

If Emails have disappeared from the inbox or other folders of the Gmail, Let’s jump into the Spam & trash folder. Now check whether you find the missing emails in the Gmail’s trash or spam folder.

Trash mail in gmail

 If you can get your mails there, Let’s move them back into the Gmail inbox.

  • Open the Gmail Website
  • Sign in to the Gmail account
  • Click on the Spam/Trash folder. 
  • Select the emails that you want to recover.
  • Press the move button and select the mail folder.

Finally, your emails will be recovered from the account.

Review the Filters If Gmail is deleting messages automatically- 

If Gmail is deleting some specific emails automatically from the inbox or other folders. You should get into the Gmail settings and check the filters. Probably, you have made a filter, which is automatically deleting those messages from your mailbox.  

Turn off gmail forwarding

If you find any filter commanded to delete the emails, go ahead and terminate them. After that, you need to recover the missing emails from the trash folder. 

  • Launch the browser on your computer. 
  • Go to the Gmail.com website. 
  • Sign in to the Gmail account.
  • Press the Settings icon.
  • Now Go to the See All Settings
  • Click on the Filters And Blocked Address tab.
  • Finally, press the Delete button available next to the Filter

Turn Off Gmail Forwarding-

Gmail forwarding is beneficial when you are managing multiple email accounts. It forwards all the Incoming messages to the given email address. Meanwhile, It also has some side effects. Once you turn on the forwarding on the Gmail, you will start missing the new messages in the inbox because they will be directly landed in the forwarding account. 

Gmail address forward

So you should ensure that the forwarding is not turned on. If it is turned on by mistake, go to the settings and disable it using this guide.

  • Open the Gmail account
  • Click on the Settings
  • Press the See All Settings button. 
  • Now click on the Forwarding & POP/IMAP tab. 
  • Press Turn off the forwarding option.  
  • Scroll down and click on the Save Changes button. 

Use Search Box To Find the Emails-

When an Email disappears from the Gmail account, let’s try to search for the missing message via Gmail’s search box.

  • Let’s get into the Gmail account on the browser or App.
  • Click on the Search box.
  • Now enter the keyword related to that Email like- subject name, person name, email address, etc.
  • Check the search results.

Use Email Recovery Tool To Recover Permanently Deleted Emails-

If you don’t find the missing emails anywhere in Gmail. That means your emails have been permanently deleted.

If you are confident that you haven’t deleted any of them, someone has gained access to your mailbox, and they have deleted the messages. Usually, It happens when your password is common or left the account logged in on a public computer.

So you should review the recent activity of your Gmail account very carefully when Gmail is showing any suspicious activity. You need to secure your account first. To do that, you need to change the Gmail password and update the security option. 

After securing the Gmail account, you should contact Gmail and ask them to restore the permanently deleted Email into the account whenever you delete any emails from the trash mail. Gmail will still keep them on the server for the next 30 days, so If you change your mind or delete the Email by mistake. You can restore them before 30 days. 

To do that, you have to go to the https://support.google.com/mail/workflow/9317561? and click on the continue button.

Clean Browser Cache & Cookies-

When Email disappears from Gmail on the browser while they are available in third-party mail application like- Outlook, Apple mail, etc., it means the browser cannot load the mailbox successfully; that’s why emails are gone from the Gmail on browsers. You can use the new browser or optimize the existing browser to fix that. 

  • Delete The Browser history.
  • Clear the cookies. 
  • Update the JavaScript and other plugins. 
  • Update the browser as well. 
  • Uninstalling the browser from a computer and then reinstalling it also fixes the issue.

Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox-

If Emails are disappearing from Gmail but are available in the mail application like- outlook or smartphones. It means you have configured the Gmail account using the Pop3 Servers. In such a case, you have to enable the Keep the Gmail’s copy in the inbox option. 

keep gmails copy in inbox

  • Open the Gmail account
  • Go to the settings
  • Click on the see all settings
  • You need to click on the forwarding & POP/IMAP settings here. 
  • Select Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox
  • Press the save changes button. 

FAQs To Gmail Missing Emails Problem

Why Are My Emails Missing From Gmail To Outlook or other apps?

Generally, Gmail Emails are disappearing on the outlook or windows 10 mail application because of the Account synchronization issue. Probably, the account is misconfigured, or settings are outdated, and that’s why it can’t sync to the Gmail server. 

  • Open the Outlook or windows 10 mail application. 
  • Click on the account settings. 
  • Now update the Gmail password. 
  • Review the Imap / Pop3 server settings. 

For more details, you can also visit: why is my Windows 10 mail app not syncing with the Gmail, or why Outlook won’t connect to Gmail. 

Why Gmail Are Missing On iPhone?

If Gmail is missing emails on the iphone or android phone while you can find the emails on the webmail. It means your iphone is unable to sync with the Gmail servers. So you need to remove the Gmail account and then re-add them using the valid account credentials. 

  • Open The Settings. 
  • Go to the accounts & password. 
  • Press the Gmail account. 
  • Now tap on the delete account. 
  • Tap the Delete button. 

Once your account is deleted from Gmail, you should reboot the phone and then re-add the Google account to your iphone. 

Why has Gmail deleted all emails from the Spam mails automatically?  

Gmail keeps the Spam mails for 30 days only. If you want to keep them longer, you have to mov those emails into the junk or other folders by clicking the Not spam button. 

Why Are My Old Emails Disappeared From My Gmail Account Automatically? Earlier, They Were Available In The Trash Or Spam Folder

By default, Gmail will keep the emails for 30 days only. After that, all emails will be permanently gone, and you won’t be able to recover them. You should move your emails into other folders from Spam or trash to save them.

How to recover deleted emails in Gmail after 30 days?

Unfortunately, there is no way to recover the deleted emails about 30 days ago.

Ajay Rathaur

I am a tech blogger who is always excited to write about technology. Especially related to routers, printers and computers, and email. Along with writing, I have also worked as a technical support engineer for 7 years.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Thomas D. Hang

    Why is my gmail not showing old emails in the inbox. I can view the emails that came day before yesterday only. where are they gone from my account? and how do I recover them?

  2. Jessenia R. Mackey

    How do I stop my Gmail from deleting emails? These emails are disappearing from the mailbox automatically? None of them are deleted by myself.

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