Accidentally running message filters on my Sent folder lost all emails there
I was attempting to clean up my inbox, so I ran my message filters. These filters move emails to folders based on email address. However I had the Sent folder selected, and after running it, all of my sent emails are gone. Furthermore, since this is an IMAP account, the emails are gone on the server as well. Are they really gone, or have they just gone somewhere odd? Is there a way to get them back somehow?
Chosen solution
Toad-Hall said
re :These filters move emails to folders based on email address. you do not say whether the condition in the filter - the email address - is the one in the TO or FROM field. If it was using the 'FROM' then all sent emails would use your email address. So condition would be: 'FROM' and 'contains' or 'Is' and your email address So what action have you got set up for this condition? Because that is where the emails would have been moved to. Without knowing what the filter says it is impossible to guess. Did you only run one specific filter? But I would check to see how that filter would have worked on the Sent folder. Maybe post an image of the filter. Maybe the answer could be in the Tools > Message filters > Filter Log - so check that out.
Thanks, your answer got me the emails back! The answer was that I have a filter that moved all emails from someone in my company to a folder. So this filter sent all my sent emails there as well. I looked in there, but they were so interspersed with other emails that I simply missed seeing them. I made a new filter that runs only manually that searches for me as the sender and reclaims them back to the sent folder. Now my sent emails are back!
Thank you!
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re :These filters move emails to folders based on email address.
you do not say whether the condition in the filter - the email address - is the one in the TO or FROM field.
If it was using the 'FROM' then all sent emails would use your email address. So condition would be: 'FROM' and 'contains' or 'Is' and your email address So what action have you got set up for this condition? Because that is where the emails would have been moved to.
Without knowing what the filter says it is impossible to guess. Did you only run one specific filter? But I would check to see how that filter would have worked on the Sent folder. Maybe post an image of the filter.
Maybe the answer could be in the Tools > Message filters > Filter Log - so check that out.
Modified by Toad-Hall
Chosen Solution
Toad-Hall said
re :These filters move emails to folders based on email address. you do not say whether the condition in the filter - the email address - is the one in the TO or FROM field. If it was using the 'FROM' then all sent emails would use your email address. So condition would be: 'FROM' and 'contains' or 'Is' and your email address So what action have you got set up for this condition? Because that is where the emails would have been moved to. Without knowing what the filter says it is impossible to guess. Did you only run one specific filter? But I would check to see how that filter would have worked on the Sent folder. Maybe post an image of the filter. Maybe the answer could be in the Tools > Message filters > Filter Log - so check that out.
Thanks, your answer got me the emails back! The answer was that I have a filter that moved all emails from someone in my company to a folder. So this filter sent all my sent emails there as well. I looked in there, but they were so interspersed with other emails that I simply missed seeing them. I made a new filter that runs only manually that searches for me as the sender and reclaims them back to the sent folder. Now my sent emails are back!
Thank you!
Good to hear you've located all your sent emails.