Help Emails get deleted every month or so despite settings??

[rcbrown23]

Every month or so, seemingly randomly, all emails over about a week old get deleted from my IMAP account going to my phone. Also, at the same time, they all get deleted from my laptop! But not my desktop.

I have my laptop and phone setup as IMAP, and my desktop as POP. I'm assuming it's my phone thats deleted them, and since it's connected to my laptop, they get deleted there too.

I've checked all the settings on my phone and everywhere I can see, I have it set to NOT delete any emails.

Any help here? Or point me in the right direction?

 

[WoohooGuy]

You need to check your email provider settings regarding the long term storage of the emails.

When a device is set to IMAP access it' "looks in" the inbox folder of your email account. Every time you check your emails it just opens the inbox folder of your email account, has a peek, and shows you whats there.

When a device is set to POP is actually downloads the email from the server. When you check your email the POP client looks in your inbox, if there is anything new the client downloads the email to a local folder on the system and then displays it to you.

IMAP is good for devices that have limited memory or storage capacity as it does not house all your emails and attachments locally. Down side is if you have no data connection generally all your email is unreadable including old emails.

POP is good for devices with hard drives or storage as it caches all your emails so there is a copy on the email server and locally. Good when you have no data connection as you can still see all your old mail, downside is email and attachments take up space.

If your email provider provides a web based interface or web access to your account then log in through that interface. Somewhere in the email account settings you will probably see something set to automatically delete emails some 30 days old or similar. Disable that setting.

Also note that many providers now have separate settings for POP and IMAP access, be sure to verify the proper settings in both categories if available.

I have disabled any setting in my email providers web based interfaces that delete email. I have many devices with access to my email and generally I have the mobile devices set to never delete an email from the server, but I have my desktop running ThunderBird set to download every email and only delete them from the server after 60 days so that I have fair access to them via mobile sources but once deleted from the server I know my desktop has them saved.

 

[rcbrown23]

Thanks for the excellent advice, Woohoo. I'll check it out and get it sorted.