Random outlook folder contents empty

[Velvis]

A friend of mine uses Outlook connected to a gmail account and has so for years. Recently he has noticed entire folder contents just disappear. Nothing in trash.
I checked the actual Gmail website and it is missing from there as well.
I checked if there was a view set or if Outlook was only set to sync so far back but that all looks as it should.

Any ideas what would cause this?

 

[britechguy]

Trash is emptied every 30 days on most IMAP servers.

I have no idea what's happening otherwise if those folders (known as labels) were created on the Gmail side in the past. These should sync down.

 

[callthatgirl]

A friend of mine uses Outlook connected to a gmail account and has so for years. Recently he has noticed entire folder contents just disappear. Nothing in trash.
--Folders are corrupted

I checked the actual Gmail website and it is missing from there as well.
--Did you check the All Mail folder on the web? This is where I typically find emails from corrupted folders in Outlook

I checked if there was a view set or if Outlook was only set to sync so far back but that all looks as it should.
--Outlook and IMAP any server will have corruption in time

For @britechguy I don't agree with your statement, I don't know of any that automatically empty trash or deleted items. None in the past few years anyway
Gmail though, does have a settings to empty the trash after 30 days but this is a setting that can be changed to many days. I just set one to empty after 365 days.

 

[britechguy]

Gmail though, does have a settings to empty the trash after 30 days

Which is exactly what I was alluding to, and it's the default. Since sync works in both directions, if you have a collection of messages in Trash that are all at least 30 days old, with default settings, they get deleted permanently and the corresponding folder in Outlook will, of course, be empty.

I'm done with the claims about IMAP and Outlook. I've been working with clients for years who have used nothing but IMAP with Outlook, and to a one they've had no problems. That doesn't mean that issues don't occasionally occur, they do, but they are not inevitable. I have enough water that's flowed under the bridge to say that with assurance.

 

[callthatgirl]

Well, when you comment with "on most IMAP servers" that's why I posted my comment back. People come here to read and learn and I will correct if I see something wrong.

I am just here to answer questions and help when I can. I've read some of your Outlook posts and agree with you sometimes.

 

[Velvis]

A friend of mine uses Outlook connected to a gmail account and has so for years. Recently he has noticed entire folder contents just disappear. Nothing in trash.
--Folders are corrupted

I checked the actual Gmail website and it is missing from there as well.
--Did you check the All Mail folder on the web? This is where I typically find emails from corrupted folders in Outlook

I checked if there was a view set or if Outlook was only set to sync so far back but that all looks as it should.
--Outlook and IMAP any server will have corruption in time

For @britechguy I don't agree with your statement, I don't know of any that automatically empty trash or deleted items. None in the past few years anyway
Gmail though, does have a settings to empty the trash after 30 days but this is a setting that can be changed to many days. I just set one to empty after 365 days.

I checked the all mail folder on the web and the missing email wasn't there either.

I logged into the admin account that controls his gmail account and tried to restore email for his account from the last 25 days and it made no difference.

What can be done about corrupted folders?

 

[callthatgirl]

Are you using the GWSMO or IMAP in Outlook?

 

[callthatgirl]

GWSMO uses a PST file for the Outlook profile. If you're using that, it's quite possible that the PST is corrupted.

I'll work on some ideas, let me know though about the question above.

 

[timeshifter]

Outlook connected to a gmail account

Yuck

 

[britechguy]

Yuck [Outlook with Gmail]

My "bread and butter" in virtually all non-business settings, and in a number of those as well for micro-businesses [my own business address has been a gmail address since day one]. The only thing I've hated is that Microsoft has refused to sync Contacts and Calendar in Outlook natively. That's already come to Outlook for Windows (the free client replacing Mail, People, and Calendar apps) and, ultimately, it's got to come to New Outlook, too.

I've never had issues with Outlook and IMAP nor with any other email client and IMAP, either. I've got my gmail accounts defined in a number of different email clients for the purpose of testing with screen reader technology, and all have been staying happily in sync for all the years I've been doing this, and across transitions to new computers.

 

[timeshifter]

The only thing I've hated is that Microsoft has refused to sync Contacts and Calendar in Outlook natively.

That's been the biggest headache. People have trouble understanding why it doesn't just all work. And the few add ons I'd tried to bring that functionality in and sync with the Gmail Contacts and Calendars were not great.

 

[britechguy]

And the few add ons I'd tried to bring that functionality in and sync with the Gmail Contacts and Calendars were not great.

I've really had great luck with GO Contact Sync Mod, provided one is careful at the outset to choose the correct sync settings in light of the actual "state on the Google side" versus "state on the Outlook side." I've had issues with duplicates because the same contact (usually, seldom calendar) exists in Outlook address book and also in Google Contacts, no matter how it originally got there, and you end up with both because on first sync neither would merge because they are separate. But once manual cleanup is done, things stay in perfect sync.

I just set up GO Contact Sync Mod last night so I could write a tutorial on how one goes through it with a screen reader. Here's what the last sync cycle looked like, and this was an instance where I cleaned out a few duplicate birthday "appointments" in the Outlook Calendar so they'd be singletons again in both Outlook and Google Calendars.



For most people I use this with the Launch application at Windows start up checkbox would be checked to ensure that syncing was going on automatically all the time. I don't really need that to happen as I use Gmail webmail, not Outlook, on a daily basis and can choose for myself if/when the next sync needs to be fired up. If I fire it up and leave it running, though, it will keep doing a sync every 2 hours until I either manually close it or do a system restart.

It's been working pretty reliably and flawlessly for years and I expect it will continue to do so with Outlook Classic until it sunsets in 2029 unless Microsoft actually integrates the feature that syncs email, calendar, and contacts in Outlook for Windows into New Outlook (over 365) and I'm not holding my breath on that one.

You have to be very careful about using the "Reset Matches" feature as this is one of the ways that one can end up creating duplicates one does not want unless the checkbox for "who wins" is set correctly prior to the next sync.

 

[Velvis]

GWSMO uses a PST file for the Outlook profile. If you're using that, it's quite possible that the PST is corrupted.

I'll work on some ideas, let me know though about the question above.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. He is using IMAP.

 

[callthatgirl]

If email is missing from IMAP in Outlook and the browser, a PST archive might have it. Some folks still have that configuration setup.

 

[Mick]

A small point that you've probably already checked @Velvis but have you checked no-one's been mucking about with mail rules? I had a case once where a disgruntled employee set a rule to 'delete on receipt' on his way out of the door...

 

[HCHTech]

I stand by my previously-stated opinion on these forums that using Outlook to get Gmail is a bad idea. MS and Google are competitors and the incentives are not there for each of them to support the other's infrastructure well. Even IF (and that's a big IF) they don't each quietly sabotage the setup, they certainly don't encourage or support it. Same with getting Gmail in Apple Mail or Hotmail in Gmail. On these same lines, I never encourage folks to get M365 email in their phone's native mail app. Just download Outlook and use that.

 

[britechguy]

I stand by my previously-stated opinion on these forums that using Outlook to get Gmail is a bad idea.

On this I have to disagree, and vigorously, and not just for Gmail.

There is nothing new or special about the IMAP protocol, and ANY modern email client supports it, and supports it well, including every version of Outlook I have ever worked with.

My client roster includes people with combinations of email addresses from multiple providers that are not Exchange based. I have never had an issue with those accounts in the Outlook Desktop App, Thunderbird, the native Apple Mail App (and I have with the Outlook app for the iPhone, very recently in fact), etc.

It would be PR suicide to produce any email client today that doesn't gracefully handle IMAP AND OAUTH where it's used. Outlook does so, and quite well in my decades of experience supporting people who use IMAP access with it, for any IMAP based email service.

 

[HCHTech]

On this I have to disagree

and that's ok - different opinions are what makes life interesting! I don't have any hard evidence, of course - this isn't something you could easily prove unless some disgruntled employee leaked internal documents or something like that. I just have my own experience and anecdotal examples like the Apple vs. MS spat over Quicktime & IE. I know there are others, but that's the one that came to mind. It's not a big leap to imagine that companies would take little digs at each other in this way.

 

[britechguy]

It's not a big leap to imagine that companies would take little digs at each other in this way.

While I absolutely agree with this, IMAP itself is an industry-wide protocol. You either work with it, or you don't.

Also, my personal anecdotal database is now many people and many years long. I've never had a significant issue of any sort using IMAP and Outlook desktop, whether alone or in combination with other accounts using other protocols. My own "test Outlook 365" on my machine uses one of my Gmail accounts and an Outlook.com account. I don't use any email client as my daily reading method, but lots of my clients, particularly those who are blind or vision-impaired, do, and most of them use Outlook because it comes with the versions of Office or M365 they have. Some use Thunderbird.

 

[callthatgirl]

I don't think I would have a business if Gmail didn't work with Outlook, it's about 40% of my work lol.

New Outlook is my competitior now.