Why is My Email Account Suddenly Empty?
There are several possible reasons for why your emails seem to have suddenly disappeared from your email account.
Email Client Setup
One possibility is that your email client may be configured to delete emails after reading them or may just hide them from the current view. For example, the Unread Mail view in some email clients will only show messages you haven't read yet. You will need to view the Inbox folder (or whatever folder your email client uses for incoming email) to view all email.
Deleted Manually
It is possible that someone logged in and deleted or moved the emails. Check your other folders, especially Spam and Trash.
POP Access Used
If you made a POP3 connection via Outlook or another mail client, then the emails may have been downloaded to the computer which made the POP3 connection. Check the Outlook or other mail client on that computer.
To prevent this from happening, be sure to set your POP3 account to leave copies of messages on your server. To do this in Outlook:
- Go to Tools > Accounts > Edit the email account > More Settings > Advanced.
- Check the box for Leave a copy of messages on the server.
Accessing the Wrong Account
This mistake is much more common than you think. Be sure you are using your full email address for the user name when you log in. If you put your cPanel username, you will be directed to the wrong place.
Again, the user name you log in with must be an entire email address, like me@mydomain.com. If you are not including the @mydomain.com part, then you will not see the correct inbox.