How to Fix Outlook Inbox Emails Disappeared Issue?

“Recently, I found out that some of my Outlook Inbox emails disappeared. I couldn’t understand Why are my emails disappearing from my Outlook inbox? I am not familiar with the functionality of MS Outlook and right now I don’t have any idea of How to fix this issue.”

It is one of the queries that I have gone through. Imagine that you need to access an urgent email in your MS Outlook, suddenly you find out that a few of your emails have disappeared from the inbox folder. I guess it would be a terrible situation.

That’s why it leads me to draft this write-up where I discuss the major causes that can create this scenario. You will also find out the most suitable solutions to fix the emails disappearing from the Outlook issue.

Why Are Outlook Emails Disappeared from Inbox ?

There are several reasons behind the emails disappearing from the Outlook inbox. Some of them are reversible, while a few of them are not. Following are the possible reasons for disappearing Outlook emails from the inbox folder.

Configuration Settings Issue

Sometimes, there may be some issues in the POP or IMAP settings of your account. It can create the problem of missing emails in Outlook.

Deletion Of Emails

Many times users accidentally delete the emails and do not realize it. Therefore, the emails are disappearing from the Outlook inbox folder.

Inactivity Of Your Outlook Account

Microsoft Outlook has a strict policy against the inactivity of your Outlook Account. If your account is not active for the last 365 days, it will cause the deletion of your emails permanently. In that case, you will not recover them.

Apply Wrong Filter

Sometimes, the filters are not applied properly. Due to this, you may not be able to read emails. Therefore, you must be extra careful when you are applying any filter.

Hacking And Malware Attack

It is the worst situation when your account is under cyber threat. It will also cause missing emails in Outlook. To prevent this, you need to change your password frequently.

These are some possible reasons due to which the Outlook emails disappeared. However, to fix this issue, let’s discuss the manual methods that will be effective in finding the missing emails in Outlook.

Method 1. Recover Outlook Inbox Emails Disappeared Issue

Now let’s discuss the manual methods to find missing emails in the Outlook Inbox folder. They are discussed here into two categories.

Initial Things to do:

Try these initial methods to find your missing emails. Sometimes, these steps help you to resolve the issue of disappearing Outlook emails.

Step – 1: Find the disappearing emails in deleted items folder:

Sometimes, your emails get deleted accidentally from the inbox folder. In that scenario, you have to check those emails in Deleted Items Folder and recover emails from there.

Step – 2: Check and clear all the Filters:

It is another reason that can cause the emails to disappear from Outlook inbox. You can change the filter setting by executing the following steps.

After opening Outlook, click on the View tab.
Then, click on the View Settings Option in the Current View area.
A new Advanced View Settings dialogue box appears. Click on the Filter option.
Select the More Choices tab from the new Filter dialogue box.
Uncheck all the filter boxes and then click Ok.

Step – 3: By using Advance Find:

Outlook has a built-in feature of the Advanced Find. You can try searching your email files that are disappeared from your Outlook inbox. Follow the below steps to execute the Advanced Find option.

Go to Inbox after opening Outlook.
Click on the Search Box from the top section to activate the Search Tools option.
Select Advance Find from the Search Tools drop-down.
After selecting the desired category, you can enter the details of the emails that you want to find.

These are the initial methods to find the disappeared emails from Outlook Inbox. If your emails are still disappearing and you can’t see them after executing the above steps, that means you need to proceed with the advanced manual methods.

Other Method to Fix Outlook Inbox Emails Disappeared Error

In this method, you can find the missing folder or emails in the Outlook account by exporting the Old Mail history and then importing them into a new profile. Let’s find out the steps to be followed to search for the missing emails in your Outlook account.

Step – 1: You need to Export Old Mail history:

Perform the following steps after opening Outlook to export the old mail history.

Click on the File from the menu option.
Now select the Open & Export option.
After that, click on the Export/Import.
Then, select Export to a file from the Export/Import dialogue box.
Select Outlook data file (.pst) from the Export to a file dialogue box.
Then, select the desired email account to make changes.
Ensure to check the include subfolders box after selecting the desired email account.
Then, click on the Next button and then select the Browse option.
Choose the desired location after providing the name.
Click on the Finish button to end the process.

Step – 2: Create a New Profile in Outlook:

To create a new profile, you need to open the Control Panel from the Start button.

Locate and select the Mail icon after entering Control Panel.
Now, select the Show Profile option from the Mail dialogue box.
Click on the Add button for creating a new profile.
After adding a profile name, click on the Ok button.
Now, provide the necessary details to configure the new account.

Step – 3: Import the Old Mail history:

This is the last step where you need to import the Old Mail history into a new profile that you just created. To do so open Outlook and then follow the steps given below.

Select the Open & Export option from the File menu.
Click on the Import/Export option.
Now, choose Import from another program or file.
After click on the Next button, select Outlook Data File (.pst).
Again click on the Next button to continue.
Now, click on the Browse button to find the PST file that you exported above.
Select the file and wait till it syncs properly.
In the end, you will get the message saying All folders are up to date.
Now, you can check the imported emails in your new Outlook profile.

The above methods will solve your problem of the Outlook Inbox emails disappeared. However, some professional tools are also available to repair the corruption and damaged email files in it. Outlook email files are in PST formats when they connect to the server. Therefore, the PST File Recovery tool is used to repair the Outlook PST files. This utility is more effective when you need to manage a lot of email files. However, if you have just a few missing emails in Outlook, you can fix this issue by executing the above-discussed methods.

Also Read: How to Export Contacts from Outlook 2016 Automatically

Wind up

I hope this write-up achieved its aim by providing valuable information to understand Why have my email folders disappeared from the outlook. Additionally, detailed manual procedures are explained in this article. I hope these manual methods will help you to fix the Outlook Inbox Emails Disappeared issue.

Fix: The Outlook Inbox Emails Disappeared Issue Manually