Gmail messages gone
This is weird. I was looking for some old messages that were Sent from Thunderbird through one of my gmail accounts. I used Thunderbird's search of the specific Gmail Sent folder. I found the messages I wanted. one from 2011 and one from 2014.
I tried another search and suddenly I can't find anything older then 8/15/2015. I even went to the web based gmail page and there are none there from before 8/15/2015. WTF. How could my search end up removing all those messages from gmail? And I mean gone. I went to the gmail folder All Mail. There is nothing there before 8/15/2015. Over 6000 messages but all before 8/15/2015. I have no filters set in gmail. I have used this gmail account for many years. I would expect over 60,000 messages. I am using only 2g of the free 15g that gmail gives me. I know this seems like a gmail problem but first Thunderbird found messages (in the gmail sent folder) from 2011 and 2014, then all messages from before 8/15/2015 are gone.
HELP! Pete
All Replies (2)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Disappearing_mail
Messages will not be deleted because of a search. Most likely what you saw was the information from the search index, not the actual messages.
What you say makes sense. But what happened? One minute I do a search and find the messages in Sent that I want from 2011 and 2014. Then, I have no messages in Sent or anywhere (Archives, etc) from before 8/15/2015.
Even checking gmail web based (not using Thunderbird) shows nothing before 8/15/2015 but they were there before because the search found them.