Vanishing emails.

[raymo]

This problem is not astronomy related, but I didn't know where else to post it.
Some email comes in, and I read it, dump some, and keep others. If I
go back to my inbox later, all my mail has disappeared. It is not in any
other file. How can this happen, and where on earth can it be going?
I receive all my mail, but have to move it from the inbox to another file
at the time of receiving it, or lose it.

raymo

[Atmos (Colin)]

In most mail programs there is a setting that tells the program to delete emails from the server once they have been downloaded (I leave this turned off). There are also settings that say to sync with the server on start up (I leave this turned on).

Whether this is your culprit or not I am unsure but it is a thought.

[raymo]

Thanks for the reply Colin. I am old, and not very computer savvy, so I get stuck with problems that younger savvy members could fix in an instant. My laptop has always done crazy things such as turning the screen brightness down to minimum, and turning off my network adaptor,
and spraying my desktop icons all over the screen, so maybe this is another example of that. I'll see if I can find my email settings.
raymo

[Exfso (Peter)]

Keeping emails on the ISP server just means you can retrieve them later if you wish. Even if they are not left on the server, the inbox of your mail program should still have them in the inbox though, unless you have deleted all stuff on the inbox then they are lost.
Another possibility is that all stuff is being archived when you close the email program down, but you would have to set it up that way I believe. I run outlook 2010 and I still have emails in my inbox be it either current or old stuff that is archived. The archived stuff is in a separate pst folder on another drive but that can be looked at any time I want..Sounds like a bit of a setting issue..

[raymo]

Thanks Peter.
Colin, I have looked at all the possible settings, and there is no setting for
auto deleting of emails after downloading; there is also no setting for archiving, as mentioned by Peter.
Put simply, emails arrive, and will stay in the outbox until I log out, and
upon signing in again they are all gone. My grandson is a bit of a comp whiz kid, and he says he has never seen anything like it before, and has
no idea what could be causing it. It has to be my comp, because our
other two comps working through the same email system are fine.
raymo

[garymck (Gary)]

Which email client are you using? Are you using a Gmail account or an ISP account? Which OS are you using?

Can't suggest anything until we know that basic data....

cheers
Gary

[Exfso (Peter)]

As Gary said, knowing your email client would help. There is a serious amount of help out there with google. If you are using Microsoft Office with outlook, there are dedicated forums for just outlook issues. Lots of other sites that have heaps of members who are extremely helpful in this regard.
Here are just a few, when you do a google search a lot more will come up.
http://www.sevenforums.com/
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/
http://www.windowsbbs.com/
https://forums.slipstick.com/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/
http://windowsbbs.com/

[raymo]

Thank you Peter and Gary. I use Windows 8.1 and am with Westnet [I
believe is now owned by IINET]. I will go through the links and do some
googling, as suggested.
raymo

[Exfso (Peter)]

Raymo, the email client is the program eg Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail or outlook.com as it is now, gmail , windows mail etc.

[raymo]

Peter, As you've probably gathered, I'm not much with computers. I just
click on the mail icon on the screen. I know its not Gmail. I can't find
Outlook anywhere in the list of programmes in the control panel. Your
list of links will give me plenty to be going on with. As I said in another
thread a while ago, having been astroimaging for over 50 yrs, it is a bit
embarrassing to be stuck at the beginners' level in this digital age, which
I really struggle with[along with a couple of other oldies on this forum].
raymo

[Exfso (Peter)]

Raymo, know the feeling well as we get older we rot and rust, life is a pain at times. I knew nothing about this stuff a few years back, so I elected to try and teach myself. I am pushing 70 and the old grey matter I think is getting greyer or is it grayer, you know what I mean.
My friend is Google, it has got me out of some binds computer/wise in the past and continues to do so.

[scopemankit (Chris)]

Are they ending up in Spam file? GMAIL sometimes sends inward mail to my Spam file - don't know why nut am looking into it.

[raymo]

No Chris, they are not there the next time I go into my inbox, and not in any of the other files.
raymo

[hamiland (Anders)]

Ok,
This sounds like you are using more than one computer/device. The one which the e-mail disappears on will be setup as IMAP or you are seeing the e-mail disappear from webmail. The device which has all of the e-mail (and which receiving e-mail on the other device doesn't result in lost e-mail) will be using the POP protocol. Counterintuitively, the issue will be on the configuration of the device where your e-mail doesn't disappear. There will be an option in the account setup to "keep mail on server for X days" as well as a couple of others. The common mail clients you could be using are Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail, and Now I think just Windows Mail, If you can't fond references to Outlook, the other two common ones I would have suggested would be Outlook or Outlook Express. PM me if you get really stuck.

[silv (Annette)]

Most email clients offer toggling between viewing "all emails" or "only unread emails".
If the setting is set to "only unread emails", the Inbox looks empty after having read all new emails.

I don't use Windows or I would post a screenshot of where this toggle is in your email program. But I assume it's in the "View" menu somewhere.

[raymo]

Thanks Anders and Silv; I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment, but will
look into your comments a.s.a.p.
raymo