This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

I need help debugging why archived messages are lost.

  • 2 iimpendulo
  • 2 inale ngxaki
  • 4 views
  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu vabrant

more options

I've been losing messages when I archive them, and I'm trying to figure out how I can prevent this. Sometimes archiving works, and sometimes not, and it appears that some accounts are archiving OK but others not.

I have an IMAP account that I've been using for over 10 years. I've got it set up to use the "Monthly archived folders" option for archiving, and the archive folders are under "Local Folders", not on the server. Sometimes when I archive a message, it is moved to the correct archive folder, and sometimes it just disappears. I haven't seen any error messages.

In trials just now, a dialog popped up about compacting folders to recover 23+ MB of space, and I clicked "cancel" rather than allowing the compacting to proceed. I have previously allowed the compacting to take place, but in either case, the archived messages have gone missing. I noticed this problem after trying to archive perhaps a hundred messages, but it's also happening with archiving just one or two messages as well.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide.

I've been losing messages when I archive them, and I'm trying to figure out how I can prevent this. Sometimes archiving works, and sometimes not, and it appears that some accounts are archiving OK but others not. I have an IMAP account that I've been using for over 10 years. I've got it set up to use the "Monthly archived folders" option for archiving, and the archive folders are under "Local Folders", not on the server. Sometimes when I archive a message, it is moved to the correct archive folder, and sometimes it just disappears. I haven't seen any error messages. In trials just now, a dialog popped up about compacting folders to recover 23+ MB of space, and I clicked "cancel" rather than allowing the compacting to proceed. I have previously allowed the compacting to take place, but in either case, the archived messages have gone missing. I noticed this problem after trying to archive perhaps a hundred messages, but it's also happening with archiving just one or two messages as well. Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide.

All Replies (2)

more options

Archiving from an IMAP folder to local folders is not as simple as it appears, especially if you have anti virus that scans mail as it is moved around.

What mail provider are you using? are the messages stored locally? or downloaded on demand?

more options

I am having the same problem, some of the archived messages are lost forever mostly for 2016. For some reason previous years have no problem.