Where are my old emails?

Greetings, grandsire02 !

You may be looking at a filtered view. With the IMAP filter highlighted, click onView at the top menu > Arrange By > Current View.  Make sure "Messages" is checked and not another filtered view.

Best wishes!

1. My old messages will not appear in AOL webmail as the AOL server automatically drops them off after 2 weeks.
2.With "imap.aol.com" highlighted I do not have an "Arrange by" option under View in the top menu - all I have is Navigation Pane, Reading Pane, Toolbars, and Status Bars. The "Arrange by" option is only available for the normal Outlook folders.

I realise that I may well have lost past received/sent emails, but can I set the archiving facility up to capture future ones handled via imap.aol.com?

How do I do each of those things?

grandsire02,

If the emails are removed from webmail, they are removed from IMAP. Is Inbox the only folder that AOL delete the emails after two weeks?  Or do AOL delete all mail in all folders after two weeks.

To not lose emails in the future, you can move emails to another folder.  Create another folder in webmail, name it Archive or another name.  Then you can copy the emails from Inbox to Archive folder (if AOL does not auto delete emails after two weeks in other folders).

You can see the new folder from your Outlook account.  Reset the IMAP folders.

war1:

Can the archiving as you suggest be set up to be done automatically? I know what will happen if it is a manual operation - sooner or later I'll forget or be on holiday and messages will be lost. Normal Outlook archives automatically, and when I use the AOL client it saves all messages to "My Personal Filing Cabinet" which is on my hard drive; but as I've said previously I dislike using the AOL email programme.  

AOL deletes all messages from its server after 2 weeks.

grandsire02

grandsired02,

Outlook has an auto backup utility, but it only backs up POP3 emails, not IMAP.  IMAP is suppose to remain on the server and not needing backup.  

There is this manual method, save your emails to "Save on My PC" Filing Cabinet. There is no auto backup program for AOL that I know of.  

"There is this manual method, save your emails to "Save on My PC" Filing Cabinet."
How do I do this, please?

Here is how to use AOL filing cabinet
http://help.channels.aol.com/kjump.adp?articleId=187662

This article refers to emails handled by AOL software (that I don't want to use). If I am sending and receiving via Outlook, my messages do not go into my (AOL) personal filing cabinet and so there's little point in backing it up, surely.

grandsire02,

Then you will have to copy emails from your AOL IMAP folders in Outlook to another folder in Outlook.  There is nothing natively in Outlook that will do move the emails automatically. You may be able to do so with a script, but I do not know of one.

OK. So going back to my original questions:
1. Have my old emails been irretrievably lost by OUTLOOK (I know AOL don't have them)? If not is there any way I can get them back?
2. How do I prevent Outlook from unilaterally scrubbing messages from imap.aol.com folders after 2 weeks?

1. If AOL deletes the emails from server, and you have not copied them to a folder in Outlook, the emails are gone.  

Outlook saves a temporary session of the IMAP folders, but is gone after you restart Outlook. Search for *.pst file.  PST file is a hidden file, so you have to unhide hidden files.  Open Windows Explorer folder and select Tools > Folders Options > View. Check "Show hidden files and folders". Click OK.

2. With IMAP, the messages are on the server.  Outlook allows you to view the messages but does not download them to Outlook.  You need to manually copy the emails to an archive folder in Outlook before the 2 weeks is due.

Have found 3 .pst files under c:\Documents & Settings\Local Settings\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Outlook ('Archive', 'Outlook', and 'Outlookimap.aol.com- 00000005'). Assuming these are the one you refer to, what do I do now as Windows won't let me open them or copy them to a new folder 'imap.aol.com' that I have just created in Outlook?

Outlookimap.aol.com is the file is the temporary file that I referred to.  It may be copy of the most recent IMAP access.  But it is worth try to open it.

Close Outlook. Copy Outlookimap.aol.com to another folder.  Open Outlook.  Go to File Data File Management and open the Outlookimap.aol.com in another folder in Outlook.  Is your old emails there?