How to Recover Old (or Lost) Emails?
I’m the type of person who hates losing old copies of digital things – photos, messages, emails, videos, etc. Although I doubt I’ll ever walk down memory lane and remember the random emails I sent in 2007 , I do not like the feeling that I could not do this , even if I wanted or needed it.
In other words, I’m a digital pack rat. And it is possible that the Tech 911 writer this week too. And you know what? I don’t blame them in the least. I understand, I understand.
Lifehacker reader Larry writes:
“How can I restore old email accounts that were on different phones several years ago ??? We will be grateful for any help in this matter, since I forgot the passwords for some of them. “
Short. Laconic. I like it. So I have good news and bad news. There are two different protocols that you (or your favorite email checking software / apps) can use to access your messages: POP3 or IMAP. For simplicity, POP3 downloads messages from a server to your computer or device, whereas IMAP simply syncs your messages between your computer or device and the server.
While I can’t currently remember any apps or services that would n’t use IMAP by default – mostly because I only ever use Gmail – you may have configured your old email accounts to use POP3 … If so, and if your default email provider deleted messages from the server when they were downloaded via POP3 (instead of giving you copies of all the mail you receive), you’re out of luck. Restoring access to your old accounts won’t help you find your old email as it was all (presumably) downloaded to your smartphone, laptop, or desktop computer, to name a few examples.
If you’ve used IMAP, you’re in luck if your ISP didn’t delete your account because you haven’t logged in for several years. Here are some of the more popular services and how long they will wait for you to sign in before deleting your account:
Yahoo Mail: 12 months
Gmail: Google previously gave users nine months of inactivity before they could -But not necessarily be -removed by account. I believe this policy changed sometime around 2013-2014 and Google now supports your account indefinitely.
AOL Mail: 180 days
Outlook.com: 365 days
You didn’t mention which email services you used, so I’ll figure it out first and then go check what their account deletion policies are. If you can’t remember what services you used (or even your email address), I would get creative. Search for your name on the main mail service you are using now to see if you are sending anything to yourself from your old account at any time. If you remember the old ISPs, run wildcard searches for any mail from their domains with your name in it. It may sound tedious, but it’s a great way to find … yourself.
You can also try searching your computer (s) to see if you have old documents or files with your old email accounts. You could also have saved old accounts in whatever password manager you use (if you have one), which will help you remember your old accounts.
If you’ve set up some kind of recovery number or alternate email address, you can also use it to find the name of a forgotten email account, if allowed by your service provider.
Among other things, all major email services have various recovery tools that you can use to find your old account if it still exists ( Yahoo , Gmail , AOL , Outlook , etc.). If you’re talking about old email from, say, your work – which was probably stored on, for example, the company’s Exchange server – I doubt you would have any way to get it. If you have an email address from some random place that is not one of the major providers, you may have to contact them directly for help. And if you had an email address from an old ISP that you no longer use, you are probably stuck.
Anyway, these are several scenarios related to your question that I can think of. Let me know what you find out, or at least which email accounts you are trying to recover, and I will let you know if I can give you even more specific advice.