topic Re: Lost opened emails in Email

Lost opened emails

viduka — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:36:27 GMT

I moved to a wdws 11 pc today & used my e mail client on my new pc. I ( mistakenly) thought that it would also move my read/opened messages as well. When I installed, new messages came through, but not older ones. I thought, OK I can get them from my webmail account, but to my dismay it only had messages from up to 2 weeks previously.

I cannot retrieve them from my previous PC as this has had a factory reset.

I assume that my messages are still somewhere, can you advise how I can retrieve them from webmail or any other way,

Kind Regards.

Peter.

Re: Lost opened emails

ferguson — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:57:17 GMT

Are your email settings POP, or IMAP?

Re: Lost opened emails

viduka — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:37:57 GMT

Hi, The client is Thunderbird & in server settings it says IMAP mail server.

Re: Lost opened emails

ferguson — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:57:08 GMT

OK. Sometimes it takes a while for the client to repopulate old emails when you change devices. I don't have any experience of Thunderbird myself, but hopefully other users may be able to point you in the right direction.

Re: Lost opened emails

viduka — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:11:57 GMT

Hi Ferguson , thanks for the reply,

When you say the client I assume you are referring to Thunderbird not TT ? My investigation would seem to suggest that you are supposed to copy your opened emails & then transfer them to your new PC when setting up the email account again.

As my previous PC is now factory reset that's obviously not possible. I suspect therefore that my best chance would be for TT to provide them, as stated they go back 2 weeks on the webmail site, so why not further ?

I apologise, but I am unsure If you work for TT, so should I be contacting them direct to try and help rather than on here ? If you do work for TT, I would appreciate if you could see if its possible to retrieve the emails from your end.

Kind regards. Peter.

Re: Lost opened emails

siphosethu-TT — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:18:34 GMT

Hi there @viduka, getting the emails on your new PC would have been possible if you previously downloaded your messages into a third-party application. Thanks

Re: Lost opened emails

Billx — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 10:08:26 GMT

Hi, @viduka

It seems very weird that a new installation of Thunderbird would download only the unread messages, and cause all the other emails at TalkTalk to be deleted.

To me, it seems more likely that the old installation of Thunderbird would have downloaded what it was set to download, and delete what it was set to delete at TalkTalk

Thunderbird needs really careful setting at the beginning.

Since you have deleted the old version of Thunderbird, I think you have lost your emails.

Before you deleted the old version of Thunderbird, did you check TalkTalk webmail and see if everything was normal?

Re: Lost opened emails

viduka — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:48:11 GMT

Sorry, can you give a further explanation as to what you mean here by a 3rd party app as its unclear ?

Also, as previously stated, would TT not have the emails that go back further than 2 weeks I can see on TT webmail ?

Regards

Peter.

Re: Lost opened emails

Billx — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:13:20 GMT

Hi, @viduka

I didn't mention ' a 3rd party app' , but you do use Thunderbird, which is a a 3rd party app.

A 3rd party app is some app, you use to get your emails, which isn't Talk webmail.

TT would not have the emails, if the previous installation of Thunderbird (which you have already deleted), had already deleted those emails. What Thunderbird would have done, would depend on what settings you had in that previous installation.

Can you log in to TalkTalk webmail?

What emails you see now, are the only emails you can get now. Any other emails at TalkTalk webmail have gone.

Edit: even though your 3rd party app, Thunderbird, is set as IMAP, the user, you, can instruct it the delete emails at TalkTalk webmail, permanently

Re: Lost opened emails

ferguson — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:05:31 GMT

@viduka

One of the benefits of IMAP is that you can open your client (yes, I mean Thunderbird) on any device and all your emails should be there, subject to any download limits on the client server. So I do not understand why that didn't happen when you logged in to Thunderbird on your new PC.

Re: Lost opened emails

viduka — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:16:50 GMT

Hi @Billx and @siphosethu-TT

All I can say is when I installed Thunderbird on the new PC, it downloaded new emails & (having rechecked) back to to 9/10, which is the same as I can see on TT webmail.

Ive no idea if the ones prior to that are deleted (only that they were on my old PC) & that they did not come across to the new set up. As TT has emails on webmail back to the 9/10, I wondered if they had them from further back ?

I had not changed any settings at all on Thunderbird, so cant really comment on that !

I did not check my TT webmail as I (thought) I had done a full back up of my PC prior to Factory Reset, thinking all info would be there if any issues. However, on checking it appears the email info is not.

Re: Lost opened emails

Billx — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:28:27 GMT

Hi, @viduka

I don't think I can comment more., because we don't know what has happened.

But if I would use a new app, a complex app like Thunderbird, I would at first, check TalkTalk webmail, to see if it does what one expects it to do.

Re: Lost opened emails

ferguson — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:40:57 GMT

But a new client app wouldn't have the historical emails stored on its servers?

I only use TalkTalk webmail as a test bed personally so there is very little in mine. But what there is goes back over six years, so I don't understand that aspect of what as happened here either.

@viduka

A lesson to learn for the future perhaps: whenever I upgrade to a new Mac I always make sure to test that all is well before resetting the old one!

Re: Lost opened emails

Billx — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:52:41 GMT

I was meaning when it was installed in the older computer, not the new one.

Re: Lost opened emails

ferguson — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:04:20 GMT

Ah, I see. All a bit academic now it seems, sadly.

Re: Lost opened emails

Mandisa-TT — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 07:13:47 GMT

Hi @viduka can you try to access your emails through TalkTalk webmail and let us know if you are still experiencing the same issue.

Re: Lost opened emails

viduka — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:58:15 GMT

Hi @Mandisa-TT

My emails only go back to 9/10/25 on TT webmail, so yes I am still experiencing the same issue of lost opened emails.

Regards

Peter.

Re: Lost opened emails

Mandisa-TT — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 07:42:48 GMT

Hi @viduka I understand how frustrating it can be to not have access to your older messages after moving to a new computer. Unfortunately, as TalkTalk, we are unable to recover emails that have been deleted and are not available in your Deleted folder.

If you were using a backup service on your previous PC, check if it saved your email data. Services like Acronis, Backblaze, or built-in Windows backup may have archived your emails.