Read time: 9 minutes
Summary: Your Gmail emails getting deleted can happen due to deletion filters, email forwarding rules, unauthorized access, Google auto-deletion settings, and other reasons. To avoid it, you must check Gmail’s compliance settings, email forwarding & POP3 rules, along with a few other methods.
Unexpected loss of your messages along with important attachments is confusing and frustrating at the same time. It may be a server issue or a human error (like misconfigured settings). Like in my case, I setup a Gmail account in Outlook using POP3, and whenever Outlook downloads the emails, it automatically deletes them from Google’s server. To quickly stop the auto-deletion, I did this:
Step 1: Go to Gmail > Settings > All Settings.
Step 2: Select Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
Step 3: Under POP download option, use dropdown and choose “keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox” option.
Step 4: Click Save Changes button.
Why are Gmail Emails Getting Deleted?
These are the prime reasons behind your emails getting deleted in Gmail:
- A filter to automatically delete emails has been applied.
- The emails are being forwarded to some other email account.
- The emails have been marked as spam.
- Some third-party apps are modifying your Gmail’s data.
- Your GWS account admin has implemented an auto-delete policy.
- Someone with unauthorized access to your account is deleting Gmail emails.
- An issue with the setting of an email client that you use to access your Gmail account.
How to Stop Gmail Emails Getting Deleted Automatically?
After exploring the reasons to why is Gmail deleting my emails? I made the following changes to my account to resolve the issue.
Disable all deletion filters
You might have applied filters that deleted or archived some emails on their own. This could be added on the basis of the content attachments, sender, receiver, etc. To stop Gmail emails from getting deleted, you need to remove any such applied filter.
Disable all deletion filters using these steps:
- Open your Gmail account and go to its ‘Settings.’
- Click on ‘See all settings.’
- Under the tab ‘Filters and blocked addresses,’ search for any ‘Delete’ or ‘Skip Inbox’ filters.
- Remove any such filters.
Remove all forwarding accounts
You might have added a forwarding address due to which certain emails are directly being forwarded to that email account and getting deleted from your Gmail account. There is a need to either remove this forwarding address or keep a copy in your own Inbox.
Make changes to the forwarding settings using this process-
- Open ‘Settings’ in your Gmail account.
- Click on ‘See all settings.’
- Move to the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ section and check if you have added an account in the ‘Forwarding’ column.
- Now, click on ‘Remove account’ and ‘OK.’
Verify POP3 email retention options
I have seen a lot of users pick this option “delete Gmail’s copy” when they configure the Gmail account in a third-party desktop email client like Outlook or Apple Mail to prevent Gmail is out of space issue. To fix Gmail emails getting deleted problem due to the POP3 protocol, do this:
- Go to your Gmail account, click on the Settings icon, and select See All Settings.
- Go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
- In the POP download section, click on the dropdown button for “When messages are accessed with POP”.
- Select the value “keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox”. Then, scroll down and click Save Changes.
Check IMAP folder limitations
Like POP3, most users use the IMAP protocol to configure their accounts in desktop email clients. And while doing so, they put a limitation on folders that only allow the latest emails to display in the email client. In such cases, some users mistake the auto-email hiding functionality for an automatic email deletion issue.
You can view your old emails by accessing Gmail’s Inbox directly. Or you can remove this IMAP folder limitation with these steps:
- Go to Forwarding and POP/IMAP section in Gmail settings.
- In the IMAP access section, make sure the value “Do not limit the number of messages in an IMAP folder (default) is selected.”
- Then, click Save Changes and go back to your email client. Wait for the emails to appear (may take a few minutes).
Turn off email auto-delete from the GWS admin console
In Google Workspace, admins have the option to setup automatic deletion of emails and chats after a certain period of time. If your mailbox is part of a GWS organization, ask your admin to look into it, or if you are the admin, follow these steps to turn the feature off:
- Access the Google Admin console page. Login in with the admin credentials.
- Click on the left navigation menu button. Select Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance.
- Choose your domain from the left pane.
- Look for Email and chat auto-deletion setting.
- Disable the auto-delete email option and click Save.
Note: The change may take up to 24 hours to reflect.
How to Recover Deleted Emails?
Sometimes, the reason behind Gmail emails getting deleted is accidental deletion or unauthorized account access (someone deleted your emails). In such cases, use these methods to recover your emails:
Recover emails from the Spam folder
It could be the case that a particular email has been identified as spam and is directly being moved to the Spam folder. Keep one thing in mind that all the emails in the Spam section get automatically deleted after 30 days.
Follow these steps to recover emails from the Spam folder:
- Open your Gmail account.
- From the extreme left panel, scroll down and select the ‘Spam’ section.
- If you found the email, tick the checkbox against it.
- Select ‘Not Spam,’ and now, it will reflect in the Inbox.
Recover emails from Bin
The email might have been deleted accidentally and sent to the Bin section of your mailbox. Like the Spam section, emails get automatically deleted after 30 days from the Bin.
Follow these steps to move emails from the Bin:
- From the left panel, select ‘Bin.’
- Check the box in front of the email.
- Select the ‘Move to’ option and then click on ‘Inbox.’
How to Save Yourself from Unexpected Email Deletion?
You can try all you want, but no system is 100% safe from technical or human errors. Therefore, I always recommend my colleagues and clients to use a Gmail backup tool. With periodic mailbox backup, you never have to worry about sudden, unexpected errors like Gmail emails getting deleted.
I personally use the Kernel Gmail Backup tool to safeguard my mailbox. This is a professional software capable of taking backup of the entire Gmail mailbox and saving it in your desired format.
These are some prominent features of the Kernel Gmail Backup tool-
- Backup entire Gmail mailbox items to computer, including Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Spam, Bin, Starred, etc.
- Save emails into multiple file formats, including MSG, EML, HTML, MHT, PDF, DOCX, and DOC.
- Automatic backup report generation with the option to save it in CSV format
- Accurate data backup with original metadata and folder hierarchy.
- This software is compatible with all Windows operating systems.
Conclusion
To prevent Gmail emails getting deleted, remove any email deletion filter, disable email auto-delete from the GWS admin portal, or check the POP3 & IMAP settings. If emails are lost, recover them from the Bin or Spam folder. But only the emails within the retention period can be recovered. To prevent permanent email data loss, always have a comprehensive mailbox backup and follow the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Frequently Asked Questions
A. You can check this with these steps:
1. Go to Gmail on your web browser.
2. Scroll down to last, on the right-bottom click on the Details button.
3. A new window will pop up, showing you the list of your last logins from Gmail.
If you find any unknown IP or device, sign out of your Gmail from all devices and change your password immediately.
A. It’s a privacy feature in Gmail that allows the sender to put restrictions on the emails, like expiration time, no email forwarding, etc. And yes, it can cause emails to automatically disappear (if the sender put message expiration time).
A. No, if your mailbox size is fully utilized, you will only stop receiving new emails in your mailbox. But none of your existing emails will be deleted without your knowledge. However, if the emails are in the Bin folder or the Spam folder, they will be permanently deleted in 30 days.
