Q: My CenturyLink inbox for e-mails suddenly disappeared. Forty or so of them. They are not in trash or spam. Totally gone. Century Link cannot help. Huh? HELP! ~ Ida Sansoucy
A: You’re right. Huh?
Assuming that you (or someone else you know) did not accidentally trash those messages, archive them or send them to spam, there actually is a possible explanation: syncing.
This issue makes itself known if you use more than one method to check your e-mail.
For example, you get a fancy new smartphone and configure it to get your latest e-mail. It works. But later you notice those messages are missing on your regular computer e-mail program.
Or you finally log into your Internet provider’s convenient e-mail account online. Same thing happens. E-mails you view online don’t also show up in your computer account.
What’s happening is that each device is checking for the latest e-mail. But if settings aren’t configured right, one service (your phone or Web browser) might download everything, leaving nothing for the other service (your computer).
The fix is to leave a copy of all e-mails on the server. Go into your e-mail program’s settings and agree to “Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server.” Here is CenturyLink’s tips page: .
Other ways to look for missing messages:
Programs such as gmail have an “All Mail” view, so you can quickly see every single message in your inbox — including those you filtered to go directly to a separate folder.
Check apps or your e-mail software to see how messages are set to delete.
For missing mail on gmail, Google offers an exhaustive tip list for finding lost messages right here:
Apple users report finding lost e-mails after changing e-mail settings of “Days to sync” to no limit. Keep in mind, this could quickly use up all your iPhone storage, so keep this setting on mobile devices to a minimum. Blogger Roland Banks, at also has for missing e-mail in Mac OSX.
If you suddenly are missing huge chunks of e-mail, you might have been hacked. Change your password immediately.
Send questions to tchuang@ denverpost.com
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