Lost E Mails

[davidanthony]

I am searching my In Box for a message around 7th December 2015. The log shows ' Last Month' to 2 January 2016, then ' Older' with the last entry 16 November. Where have the messages from 16 Nov to 2 Jan gone.?? I have not deleted or archived.
Thanx

[Buenchico]

How are you viewing your emails?

Do you, for instance, go to your email provider's web page using a browser (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome) on a Windows PC?

Or do you, for example, access them via an app on an Android phone?

Do you only ever access them the same way (e.g. always on your phone) or do you use different devices (such as your PC and/or your tablet, as well as your phone)?

These things matter if we're to have any chance of helping you!

[davidanthony]

99% of the time I always use Outlook Express on my Windows 7 PC. Do not use phone. On occasion I may view on an Android tablet if away from home but not very often.

[Buenchico]

If Outlook Express is configured to use the older 'POP3' mail system then your email will be stored locally on your own computer and (unless you've changed the default setting) automatically deleted from your email provider's server as soon as you download it.

However the fact that you can access your email via your tablet suggests that you're using the newer 'IMAP' system, where your emails are stored on your provider's server (rather than on your own computer). You're then dependent upon the 'sync' settings on both of your devices for what stays on the server and what gets deleted.

Since your missing emails were (it seems) never actually stored on your own computer, there's clearly no point in looking for them there. I suggest going to your email provider's website and logging into your mail account from there. That will show you everything which is currently stored on the provider's server. If the missing mail isn't there then it may, alas, have gone forever. However if it's present you can either simply access it via the website or, if you want it to download again to Outlook Express, you can delete the relevant account in Outlook Express and then create it again (which forces Outlook Express to re-download everything it finds on your provider's server).