Disappearing Email
Help! There's a ghost in the machine... I've had 10K+ emails disappear from my AOL in-box (verizon.net address) in the past couple months (both on my Apple iPhone and AOL web mail). I didn't notice at first, because the oldest mail was disappearing first. I first called AOL on 24 Oct and bought a 30-day single issue support plan (Case # 19462858). The base-level tech told me 7 days' worth of e-mail could be restored, but I declined, because all my mail dated 7 days earlier was still there. Everything dated before 30 Sep 2022 was gone- not in the inbox, trash, or junk, nor moved to any other folder. I called again on 28 Oct when all mail older than 29 Oct had disappeared (Case # 19487854). This time, elevated tech support explained that all email in my account up to 7 days before could be recovered, regardless of date stamp. I asked him to work his magic and I was back to 30 Sep as my oldest mail. He joked there was a ghost of some kind deleting e-mail from my inbox after he confirmed I had no rules established to automatically archive or delete mail. Which brings me to my third call today, 10 Nov (Case # 19572549). On 6 Nov, I had lost another batch of mail, this time anything older than 29 Oct and just before my 10 Nov call, I lost anything older than 1 Nov. The elevated tech restored my most recently lost email first and eventually got me back to 30 Sep, going back six days. She told me "Higher Ups" would review the recording of our call and the case #s and get back to me. She also recommended I post what happened at this Feedback site where it would get exposure to software engineers. I hope that is the case, otherwise I'm going to have to ditch my email address. Providentially, I've been downloading e-mail to my desktop over the years, so all my really old stuff (~10K+) is still there, or I'd really be crying in my beer. During my second call, we discussed the possibility of a hacker, holding my mail for ransom, but I never received a ransom demand. Also, strangely, all of my sent mail going back to Sep 2020 is still there, both on my iPhone and in AOL webmail. So, whatever is happening is only affecting my inbox. Lastly, since I've been watching my old mail closely since 24 Oct, I noticed on one occasion that some old mail, which had disappeared from my inbox was in my Deleted items. I moved them back, only to have them eventually disappear completely, so maybe it's been a two-step process all along. Anyway, I'd appreciate those 10 lb brains out there figuring it out...thanks in advance!!!
Matthew McKenzie
shared this idea
Hi there. I'm sorry to hear you're emails are going missing! This can happens if your AOL email address is also connected on non-AOL email apps, such as the native email app from your mobile device or an email app on your PC like Outlook, Thunderbird and so on. We are unable to assist you with this issue from our side, however, I do recommend contacting the phone support line to have them take a further look into this issue. Our team can be contacted at 1-800-827-6364.
Thank you and I hope you resolve this as soon as possible!
AOL Mail team
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Matthew McKenzie
commented
Sorry, I'm really confusing things...meant to type: "I called again on 28 Oct when all mail older than ~28 Oct had disappeared (Case # 19487854).
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Matthew McKenzie
commented
Sorry- need to fix something: "I called again on 28 Oct when all mail older than 30 Sep had disappeared (Case # 19487854).