This is what I call a Gmail problem: nearly 2000 emails... poof, gone.

[S3V3NTiNiN3]

As much as I dislike Google, I have a Gmail account I created a few years ago. I logged in tonight to change my password. I changed it, and it wouldn't let me log back in. So I clicked "Can't Access Your Account?", answered my security question, changed my password again, and logged in.

No emails.

I have searched All Mail, Trash, everything. Twice. My nearly 2000 important emails are no longer extant.

WHAT?!

I'm very very close to switching to my own mail server, but I just lost a heck of a lot of correspondence. Can I get them back, in the face of Google's policy that once emails are gone they are gone forever, or should I cut my losses (Not thrilled by this option) and move forward?

Time to go pull my hair out.

[Ganeshx]

Gosh, I don't have a solution to your problem but this makes me even happier that I deleted my Google Account.

Currently I use lavabit for email, which has a ton less features than Gmail, and love it. They are so privacy conscious. I hope I have no problems like yours.

[ugm6hr]

If there was any suggestion your account was hacked - then all emails were probably deleted. I think perhaps this happens for "security" reasons?

I don't think you can even contact a live person to get help at Gmail either...

[Erik1984]

Ouch... that's bad. I'm always afraid of this sort of stuff happening. I even use Gmail to collect mail from other accounts, time to rethink my mail setup... again. Don't they have any support you can contact?

[BeRoot ReBoot]

Gmail isn't the problem here, the way you use it is. You shouldn't have used webmail, shouldn't have used IMAP, should have kept local copies of everything, and should have made sure as much of your email as can be arranged is GPG/PGP encrypted.

[sharathpaps]

Have you tried the 'All Mail' label on the toolbar to your left? They might have archived all your mails. Data can't just disappear like that..

[Grenage]

Assuming that this is an account you created years ago, and stopped using, perhaps they have a system in place that automatically clears down unused mailboxes - I would.

Is there a chance that you had two accounts, and are accessing the wrong one?

[aeiah]

your account went inactive and got deleted. google doesn't delete usernames, so you were able to recover the username.

[S3V3NTiNiN3]

Hi, all -

I think I misworded my original post. This is not a Gmail account I created years ago and stopped using. I used it very regularly, so it was not inactive.

I did try All Mail and everything else.

Does Google really delete all your emails if they think you may have been hacked? Ouch.

There is no support line, their official policy is 'It's your problem.'

And from now on, I will keep a local copy of everything. You're right, it was partially my mistake.

Ouch, again.

[Grenage]

Does Google really delete all your emails if they think you may have been hacked? Ouch.

As far as I am aware, no; things may have changed. My account was once compromised, but I recovered it and employed a badass unique password. I didn't lose any mail.