Body
Environment
U-M Google, Gmail
Issue
I can't find a specific email(s) in my Inbox or any other label I assigned it to, and I know I didn't delete the message. How do I find the missing email(s)?
Resolution
The most common cause of missing email is the message being archived or removed from the Inbox label.
- Google uses "labels" (i.e., tags that are added to the HTML representation of your mailbox) to sort mail, rather than "folders" (i.e., physical locations where emails are moved and stored in files) as other email clients do (e.g., Outlook and .PST files).
- If a message has no labels attached, it should still appear in All Mail (Google's solution for viewing all emails), but occasionally it does not. (If you have ever "archived" an email in Gmail, this action removes all labels and moves it to the All Mail view.)
To search for missing emails:
- Go to U-M Gmail.
- Enter the message content that you'd like to find in the search field at the top of the page.
- Search for a characteristic of the email that is "missing" - i.e., sender, words in the subject, etc.
- Click the Show search options icon to the right of the field to perform more advanced searches (such as searching in specific labels, like Spam or Trash).
- Use Gmail search operators to narrow your search even further.
If the message is still in your mailbox, it should appear in the search results.
If your missing email is found with no labels, it will include the Move to Inbox icon in the action toolbar at the top (beside the Labels icon). Click it to restore the Inbox label and move it there. (Restoring the label in Gmail on the web will restore the message to the Inbox in a third-party IMAP mail client if one is being used (e.g., Outlook).)
Note: The U-M Google team recommends
using only apps and clients created and supported by Google or web browsers to connect to U-M Google accounts. Third-party apps and clients are created by a group or company other than Google. Google does not support the use of third-party apps or any incidents that might result from their use.
Additional Information
Important: Apple Mail has been known to strip Gmail's labels, and is one of the primary reasons it is recommended not to use Apple Mail with Google accounts. This usually happens when a user has their account set up for both the desktop and mobile versions of Apple Mail and is using both to view messages. There is no fix for this behavior. The workaround is to manually reapply labels to all messages.
Google Help Center | Gmail messages are missing
Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.