I recently (2nd week of May 2015) upgraded from Office 2010 to 2013.  The upgrade was successful, everything seemed fine.  I was using a 'pst' file in Outlook 2010 with rules to copy mails from 'ost' to 'pst'.  I configured same 'pst' in Outlook 2013 and recreated same rules to copy mails from 'ost' to my 'pst'.  After about 3 weeks post upgrade, I wanted to fish-out an old mail, it took me by shock that the search returned nothing and several folders in Outlook are empty, all of 30+ Notes except 4 that were created in the last 2 months, have also gone missing.  

I have lost a lot of official mails.  Since this happened to a 'pst' file, our company IT service desk is not in a position to retrieve mails.  I tried flipping back to Office 2010, ran through ScanPST, then upgraded back to Office 2013, ran through ScanPST, nothing helped.  Tried Recuva, it fetched a lot of deleted files, but that didnt help.  It makes sense, Recuva can only retrieve the last version of a file that was deleted.  The 'pst' size (700+ mb) seemed to be the same in Outlook 2010 and post upgrade to 2013.  Searched my entire hard disk for additional or archived 'ost or pst' .  Office laptop so anti-virus protectors are upto date.

I suspect possibly the default archive settings of Outlook 2013 might have deleted older 'Mails' and 'Notes'; some mails were dating back to 2006.  Due to work pressure, I did not bother changing any of the default settings post upgrade, nor did I go on a spree of emptying folders (about 40 of them).  The rules to copy mails were also simple 'to copy incoming mails from 'ost' to my 'pst' inbox folder.  Nearly 70% of my mails have disappeared mysteriously.  I have not taken backup for over 2 years.  

I'm spending days trying all possible ways to recover whatever I have lost, but in vain.  Has anyone gone through such a nightmarish adventure.  Am I wandering in dark or is there anyone on this forum who could help me see some hopes.

Appreciate any help!

Hello,

What code did you use for moving items in Outlook?

Be aware, the forum is for developers. Ask non-programming questions on the Outlook IT Pro Discussions or Microsoft Community forums instead.

Sorry, I didnt know about IT Pro Discussions portal.  However, I did not use any code to move mails, it was just the rules inside Outlook.

Hi,

Please check if you have any AutoArchive settings in Outlook to remove the expired items. If there is such a setting, this may be the cause of this reason. I suggest you "archive" the items to a separate .pst file instead of deleting them.

Since you have tried to find all the .ost and .pst files, please make sure you have also checked in the Deleted Items folder in each of them. If you still can't retrieve the messages you need, you may need to try some 3rd-party tools as well.

Note Please keep a backup of the data file before trying any 3rd-party tools.

Regards,

Melon Chen
TechNet Community Su

@Melon Chen, Thanks for the initial response.  I too suspected the archive mechanism with some default configuration that would delete older mails.  But the archive settings doesnt show any settings that would straight away delete mails.  I have not deleted any of the mails from any of the folders. 

This is a strange problem.  Many mails, mostly older one, from Inbox folder (PST) have gone missing.  Having said that, I have 1 or 2 mails dating back to 2006.  Simiarly, some folders, including sub-folders, are empty, some are partially.  However, the folder structure remains intact.  Since mails have partially disappeared, cannot conclude all older mails have been deleted, neither can I claim that all mails from all folders have been wiped-off.  This is one weird issue to even think of what would have happened, or how mails mysteriously disappeared.   

I have attached the screen of Outlook 2013 default archive settings.  The option "Archive items in this folder using the default settings" is selected.  The 'Default Archive Settings' has the 'Run AutoArchive every...' unchecked.  The ''Prompt before AutoArhive runs" is selected but in a disabled state, since "Run AutoArchive..." is not checked.  Well yes, there is one option under ''Prompt before AutoArhive runs" tree that says 'Permanently delete old mails' option being selected.  But I suspect this would have been executed.  If it did, is there a way to recover the deleted mails.

Hi,

As we are not sure when and how the emails were lost, I can't guarantee that we can recover the emails. If the emails were deleted long before you realized it, there is a possibility that they may not be recovered.

You can try some methods in this article, which may be helpful:

Restore Deleted Items from an Outlook PST-file

Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Melon Chen

Forum Support