IMAP Mail Directory Keeps Going Empty

[wisedave]

Hello,

We use Outlook 2010 our our Windows 7 laptops. Only one email account for our domain is set up as IMAP. That account is set up so my wife can receive her emails on her laptop as well as her iPhone 4s (running the updated iOS8).

We noticed a problem a couple of days ago that her folders all disappeared. When she checked her iPhone, it was the same.

When I contact our hosts, they said that the mail directory is empty. When he checked to see if the file was accidentally removed, he didn't find any evidence of this. It's like it disappeared.

We restored the files from a back up, but then it happened again! This has been the case twice now.

They are trying to figure this out but at the moment, they are stumped.

We have run virus checked on the laptop and iPhones doesn't have any recent apps added to it. We thought perhaps there was something going on with some sort of conflict but can't find any evidence of this.

At the moment we are uninstalling and re-installing Outlook and are uninstalling the account from the iPhone to then re-install.

Have you run into anything like this before? Any help or direction would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Does she have the account set up as a POP3 account somewhere? Is she using rules to move mail to folders in a pst? A POP3 account that is not leaving mail on the server is the usual culprit when mail disappears from the inbox. It shouldn't delete mail from other folders or the folders themselves.

 

[wisedave]

Hello Diane,

She has an old POP3 account installed in Outlook but it's from the same email address. This change was made almost a year ago.

Here is a link to two screen shots -

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ra1k8cyxj95jcrm/AABrYJ08US0ItBHVspd_Xu6za?dl=0

Yes....she is using rules but that was for the IMAP account.

What I have been told is that the entire directory is going missing.

Have you heard of such a thing?

Thanks for the help

Dave

 

[Diane Poremsky]

No, i haven't ever heard of an imap directory going missing, especially on the server. Did she have other folders in the imap account besides the default folders?

 

[wisedave]

She had may 20 or so folders that she would sort her emails into (or have rules do that for her).

What I have now done is uninstall and re-install Office 2010. I was hoping to just re-create the IMAP account but when I opened Outlook, the account was still there (as was her old POP3 account). :/

My server people want me to remove that account but Outlook says it's the default account and won't let me. When I try to make the IMAP account the default, the option is greyed out .

This is where I'm stuck at the moment and it's the next hurdle I need to clear for their diagnosis.

Any thoughts on how to correct this?

Thanks for your input and help

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You should be able to set the imap account as default email account, but you can't set it as the default data file, you need a pst file as the default.

Close Outlook. Open Control panel, search for Mail. Open the profile - on the Email Account tab, remove the imap account and the recreate it.

I'm wondering if she was using rules to move mail into a pst file and that is missing from the profile for some reason. Is there a pst file at Documents\Outlook Files that is large and was last modified when she lost the folders?