Unable to recover deleted emails and sync issues

Question

Unable to recover deleted emails and sync issues

Karishma Gujudhur 0

Hello I am not being able to recover deleted emails from my outlook account. I have 4 important emails from last year, and I've been trying to recover them with several email recovery tools online. So far, with the recovery tools, I haven't been able to recover anything but only 3 blank emails, which I suppose and think that these are the deleted emails I have been looking for. But the recovered emails are all blank with no subject, no body/content and they have only the dates. I have been getting this error all the time.

03:17:41 Synchronizer Version 16.0.19127

03:17:41 Synchronizing Mailbox 'Karishma Gujudhur'

03:17:41 Synchronizing Hierarchy

03:17:41 Error in folder 'Inbox'

03:17:41 [0-738]

03:17:41 1 folder(s) updated in online store

03:17:43 Don

I tried a lot fixes for synchronization issues, but nothing seems to be working. Can anyone help me please.Screenshot (18).png

I saved the message ID from one of the blank recovered deleted emails, which I've taken from the internet headers couple of days ago. And when I try to get the message ID for the other blank emails now, the headers option doesn't seem to be working or the icons have greyed out.

I looked up online to see if I can get any information with the message ID. It turns out you can trace an email or get additional info using Microsoft purview or exchange admin center. But I'm having trouble using those websites with a personal account. Is there any other way I can trace these emails with message ID with a personal account.

Thank you

Regards

Hornblower409 14,820 Reputation points

2026-06-20T20:01:20.8533333+00:00

@Karishma Gujudhur said

I'm having trouble using those websites [purview or exchange admin center ] with a personal account. Is there any other way I can trace these emails with message ID with a personal account.

No. Personal outlook.com accounts do not provide access to the back-end tenant or any server-side tools.

I assume you have already checked your account in Outlook Web https://outlook.live.com/

If the missing emails are not there, then unless you copied them to a local folder ("This Computer Only") or a local PST file that you created on your PC they are gone.

As to your Sync Errors - Try creating a new Outlook Profile and add your outlook.com account to it. Does this new Profile sync correctly?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/Outlook/create-an-outlook-profile

1 answer

Your answer

Hornblower409 14,820 Reputation points

2026-06-20T20:01:20.8533333+00:00

@Karishma Gujudhur said

I'm having trouble using those websites [purview or exchange admin center ] with a personal account. Is there any other way I can trace these emails with message ID with a personal account.

No. Personal outlook.com accounts do not provide access to the back-end tenant or any server-side tools.

I assume you have already checked your account in Outlook Web https://outlook.live.com/

If the missing emails are not there, then unless you copied them to a local folder ("This Computer Only") or a local PST file that you created on your PC they are gone.

As to your Sync Errors - Try creating a new Outlook Profile and add your outlook.com account to it. Does this new Profile sync correctly?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/Outlook/create-an-outlook-profile

Answer 1

For a personal Outlook account, there is no supported way to use Microsoft Purview or the Exchange admin center to trace or recover messages by Message-ID. Those tools and the related audit-log investigations are only available to administrators in Microsoft 365/Exchange Online tenants, not to consumer Outlook.com/for‑home accounts.

For the missing/deleted messages themselves, only the following supported recovery paths exist for classic Outlook and Outlook on the web:

Check Deleted Items / Junk Email
- In Outlook (classic), open the Deleted Items folder and look for the messages.
- In Outlook on the web/Outlook.com, open Deleted Items or Junk Email and look for the messages.
Recover from the Recoverable Items folder (classic Outlook)
- Ensure Outlook is online and connected.
- In the folder list, select Deleted Items.
- On the Home tab, select Recover Deleted Items From Server.
- In the Recover Deleted Items window, select the items to restore and choose Restore Selected Items, then OK.
- If the Deleted Items folder is replaced by Trash, or there is no Recover Deleted Items command, that account type does not support server‑side recovery beyond Deleted Items.
Recover from the Recoverable Items folder (web)
- In Outlook on the web/Outlook.com, select Deleted Items in the left pane.
- At the top of the message list, select Recover items deleted from this folder.
- Select the items to recover and choose Restore.
If the messages are not in Recoverable Items
- If the messages do not appear in Recover Deleted Items (classic Outlook) or in Recover items deleted from this folder (web), they have likely been permanently removed (for example, by age limits on the Recoverable Items folder or by emptying Deleted Items long enough ago).
- After the server‑side recovery period expires and neither the user nor an administrator (in a work/school tenant) can find the items in Recoverable Items, those items are considered permanently deleted and cannot be restored.

Because this is a personal account, and the messages appear only as blank artifacts from third‑party tools, there is no additional Microsoft-supported mechanism to reconstruct or trace the full content by Message-ID once they are no longer present in Deleted Items, Junk Email, or the Recoverable Items folder.

For future protection, avoid using Deleted Items or Junk Email as storage, and consider creating dedicated folders and/or using backups or PST exports for critical mail.

References: