We’ve heard from a few people that say that huge chunks of their Gmail messages have disappeared and they want to know why and how to retrieve them. In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we looked at how filters or incorrect settings could cause your messages to vanish and ways to correct that issue.
But there’s a more sinister possibility if you see large chunks of messages vanishing and none of the troubleshooting steps we outlined in the previous articles seem to help.
Your account may have been hacked. If all of the e-mails in your inbox or a large chunk of them have vanished, that can be a sign that your account has been compromised.
Hackers frequently will delete your messages after accessing your account. Sometimes, they’ll even divert all of your e-mail messages to their accounts and steal your information or use your identity to scam others.
If you’ve had a big chunk of your Gmail disappear, the first thing you’ll want to do is change your password.
Make it a strong password and I’d also suggest enabling two-factor authentication to make it harder for crooks to break in again.
You can also follow this link https://support.google.com/mail/contact/missingemails?rd=1
to fill out a form to attempt to recover your missing messages.
To check to see if other devices have accessed your account recently, click here.
You’ll be able to see what devices have accessed your Gmail account in the past 28 days.
There’s no guarantee they’ll be able to retrieve your messages, but you may be able to stop it from happening again.
Another suggestion I would make is to consider using an e-mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird to download copies of your Gmail messages onto your PC. You can then back up your important messages in case something were to happen to your account.
~ Cynthia
Don’t forget to check all your settings too. A hacker could gain access again after a password reset if they made themselves a party to your account in the settings.