Forum Discussion
Hacker destroyed my emails
Last July as I was boarding a plane and had no access to Wifi for 5 hours (worst nightmare ever), I realized someone hacked into my hotmail account. I had more than 20 years worth of emails there which is why I can't stray anywhere else. ANYWAY, the hacker wrote an email demanding money, and proceeded to lock me out of all of my apps and subscriptions... I couldn't do anything. He had forwarded everything to a different email and set up some rule. I finally was able to get back into my account on Microsoft but now I'm realizing I'm missing thousands of emails. I checked the rules, did all the troubleshooting steps etc. and anything prior to July 1, 2025 is just GONE. Can anyone help me recover these? I feel like they have to be on a server somewhere!
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Because you regained account access but older messages remain missing, recovery now depends on whether those messages still exist in a folder, recoverable storage, or a separate copy. Their original dates do not determine the recovery window; the deletion date does. Using Outlook.com in a desktop browser, search all folders, including Archive, then open Deleted Items and select Recover items deleted from this folder. Restore anything available there. Microsoft documents 30-day retention in Deleted Items and a 30-day recovery period for items removed from it, so messages deleted months ago may already be permanently unavailable. Since you already checked rules, also verify forwarding, account security information, and recent sign-in activity. Check any older computer or exported mail archive for independent copies before synchronizing or deleting them. Contact Microsoft support about the missing mail, but neither this forum nor the documented recovery process guarantees restoration from historical server backups.
