EMAILS ARE GONE!

[TOMFELLER]

I have a Dell computer with Windows 7, and have used Windows Live email for several years.
But one day last week when I turned on my computer all past emails were gone! I could send and receive but all my files in inbox, sent deleted, etc. were gone. I cannot find them - any suggestions?? Thank You!!

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi Tom,

Were the emails stored in local folders on your computer or were they IMAP folders in your email service providers mail servers?

 

[TOMFELLER]

I forgot to mention that I had already emailed back and forth with EarthLink; after trying a few things the guy I was communicating with said it was a Microsoft problem.
Email messages are stored on my computer.

 

[EQ Admin]

Did you try a Windows system restore to a date before the email was missing?

 

[TOMFELLER]

I tried System Restore but I need to go back to 6/30 and the system won't let me go back before 7/3.
I think it may be a Microsoft problem - I think the email system thinks there are 2 tomfellers with different passwords, or something. I can't get into my email account; it wants to send my password to my email or phone but I can't answer the security questions.

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi Tom,

Do you have any backups, either online backups or an external storage device?

If you look at your email account settings in Windows Live Mail do you see 1 or 2 email accounts configured?

Are you able to login to webmail.earthlink.net with your username and password?

 

[TOMFELLER]

I do not have backups of my old emails.

When I checked accounts it looked like none were there; I configured my tomfeller@earthlink.net account.
Strange, when I go to my Windows Live Account and click Send & Receive I get a block asking for me to sign in, but in the upper right corner there's my pic, and if I highlight it, it says, Signed in as Tom Massfeller.

I am not able to sign in to webmail.earthlink.net.

Thanks..................... <TOM>

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi Tom,

Did you try using the EarthLink password reset tool to recover/reset your password?

https://myaccount.earthlink.net/cam/passmain.jsp

 

[TOMFELLER]

Thanks for asking; I was just about to post that I did recover my EarthLink password so I am now receiving emails.
I still have the problem of missing all my emails before July 1 - I am going to contact EarthLink again on this today... will keep you posted.

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi Tom,

I don't think there is much of a chance they can restore those emails.

The earthlink.net accounts are webmail & pop3.

If you downloaded email to your computer with pop3, maybe they can do a disaster restore and get back the past couple days of emails, but I don't think it's possible for you to get back older emails that had been downloaded long ago.

If you want to store your email on the EarthLink servers, it's not a feature yet, but reply here and you'll get an update when EarthLink starts to offer IMAP service for the earthlink.net accounts.

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi Tom,

Did you get a response about the email restores?

Asking for a restore you'll probably get told no.

Try using this specific phrasing instead:

"Please check my account for rebuild archives"

It may be possible to restore up to 30 days if support rebuilds your account.

Please let us know if that works and helps to recover at least some of your email.