On a different machine using Outlook 365, Windows Mail cleared my inbox.
On a different machine using Outlook 365, Windows Mail cleared my inbox.
Hello all,
I need assistance understanding the issue with my email. I have two computers for business use. My old one runs Vista and used Windows Mail for my work email. On the new computer, which is running Windows 10, I use Outlook 365 with the same email.
Yesterday, when I turned on the old machine and accessed Windows Mail, it imported all the latest emails without issues. But when I switched to my new computer and opened Outlook, my entire inbox disappeared. After some attempts, I realized this was occurring every time I opened Windows Mail. These emails are also missing from the email prover website.
What should I do to stop this from happening? How can I recover my emails to Outlook?
Thank you for your support!
Why continue using Windows Vista? Microsoft ended support for it in 2017, meaning you haven’t gotten any security updates in four years. If Vista has vulnerabilities (and they do), Microsoft won’t address them. Malware is common in Vista. The safest choice is to either use Windows 10 only for email or upgrade your Vista system to Windows 10. Even then, Vista likely won’t run Windows 10 smoothly. I’d only use a Vista machine for personal tasks due to the security concerns.
Dempy, following on from what velocity said, Outlook on your new PC is set up as IMAP where messages remain on the server. On your old PC Windows mail is using POP where the messages are downloaded then deleted from the server. Therefore, they're no longer available on your new PC.
To prevent this from happening again, go into the "Advanced" section for your mail account on the old PC and set it to "Leave a copy of messages on server".
Sadly, there's no way to put the deleted messages back on the server so that your new PC can view them. If it's any consolation, it's only the inbox that's affected so your Sent Items and other folders should still have all their old messages.
Even though I can't mention the Vista version of Windows Mail specifically, usually when you add an IMAP account, you can transfer emails from local folders to IMAP folders. This way, the messages appear on the IMAP server. You can simply shift the files between folders. However, some programs or servers may struggle with moving folders containing subfolders to their servers at once. Therefore, it's advisable to set up the folder structure within the IMAP account beforehand. Then you can drag and drop the messages easily.
I used to do this quite often years ago when smartphones became larger. As I moved clients from POP to IMAP, they could access all their old messages on their phones.
The main worry when switching from POP to IMAP is whether certain programs delete local folders once all POP accounts are removed. It's been a while since I've experienced this. I don't recall which programs affected it. But the original poster should prioritize adding IMAP first, transfer the local folders, and then remove the POP account just to be safe.
If a large number of messages need moving, this process can take a long time and might not seem to progress. If the situation becomes slow or unresponsive, it could be due to waiting too long. Be patient and avoid forcing the process—just let it complete when finished.