All my Gmail has disappeared!!

[rbpeirce]

I use my Gmail mailbox to preserve important stuff. I just discovered the mailbox is empty as is every Gmail sub-mailbox: Drafts, Sent, Junk and Trash. Is there any way to restore it? I have Time Machine and SD! backups but I've never figured out to use them for mail. Everything seems to be buried in a Library/Mail directory.

 

[lclev]

Have you logged into your Gmail account online? Try that and check the trash too.
https://mail.google.com › mail

- Lisa

 

[rbpeirce]

Have you logged into your Gmail account online? Try that and check the trash too.
https://mail.google.com › mail

- Lisa

I did and it is gone from there was well. Google says it can't be recovered. That's why I was hoping it might be in my library somewhen.

 

[MacInWin]

How were you accessing Gmail? If you were using an app, like Apple's Mail, or some other, the messages may be in one of your backups.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

As Jake suggested, if you were accessing your GMail through the Mail app and have Time Machine backups, you might be able to restore the file within Mail back to prior to the deletion (if you know when it happened) and perhaps get access to things.

One thing to keep in mind is that if Mail is using IMAP to stay in sync with the server, even restoring back to an older backup might not work since it might try to update the local contents to match what's on the server and the GMail servers don't have your emails, so they might be deleted (again) from Mail as well.

 

[rbpeirce]

How were you accessing Gmail? If you were using an app, like Apple's Mail, or some other, the messages may be in one of your backups.

That is my hope but I don't know how to find them. Everything might be in a Time Machine backup of ~/Library/Mail but is it and how do I get it?

 

[RadDave]

That is my hope but I don't know how to find them. Everything might be in a Time Machine backup of ~/Library/Mail but is it and how do I get it?

Hello - just do a google search on 'how to restore lost email with time machine' - depending on your macOS/hardware, an AI Overview may be generated outlining how to find and attempt to restore your email from the TM backup - also look at the other hits for any 'Apple Support' responses. But I'm curious how your Gmail account was apparently deleted - might be of interest to others using that service? Anxious to know your results - good luck. Dave

 

[rbpeirce]

Hello - just do a google search on 'how to restore lost email with time machine' - depending on your macOS/hardware, an AI Overview may be generated outlining how to find and attempt to restore your email from the TM backup - also look at the other hits for any 'Apple Support' responses. But I'm curious how your Gmail account was apparently deleted - might be of interest to others using that service? Anxious to know your results - good luck. Dave

None of the instructions I saw allow recovering a specific mailbox, Gmail as of a particular date in this case. You can recover the entire mail system, V10 I think, or specific emails, although I have no idea how you find them.

 

[rbpeirce]

As a test I sent my Gmail mail account a test message. I confirmed it showed up on my machine. Then I went to ~/Library/Mail to see if I could find it. I did locate a directory called [Gmail].mbox/All Mail.mbox. I think it might be in there somewhere but I couldn't find it. Any ideas?

 

[RadDave]

None of the instructions I saw allow recovering a specific mailbox, Gmail as of a particular date in this case. You can recover the entire mail system, V10 I think, or specific emails, although I have no idea how you find them.

Sorry that did not help you - best of luck and hope others will have more suggestions. Dave