URGENT: 6,800 Outlook/Hotmail Emails Lost, Support Loop Preventing Human Assistance

Question

URGENT: 6,800 Outlook/Hotmail Emails Lost, Support Loop Preventing Human Assistance

Paul S 0

I urgently need help reaching a human Outlook.com/Hotmail.com support agent. Approximately 6,800 emails spanning the last two years disappeared from my Junk Email folder, where they were accidentally moved. I believe all were removed about 20 days before the stated 30-day retention period. I have spent about 30 hours over the past few weeks, including four trips to the public library because I was told I would need to be on a PC to restore them. I’m trying to get help before the recovery window expires after a few more days. I was able to reach a live support agent for Outlook mobile support (I am an iPad 9 & 11 and iPhone 13 user); a human named Michael provided me with case number [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed], but he told me to continue on a PC and reach out to support.microsoft.com/en–us/home/contact. When I did multiple times at the public library, the support site repeatedly looped back to sign-in and then reported that it could not find the case number. I am not asking forum volunteers to recover the emails. I need help reaching the correct Microsoft support team before any remaining recovery options are lost. Has anyone found a way to reach a live Outlook.com support agent when the support system is stuck in a sign-in loop? I’d be happy to go back to the library and try again. Thanks for any help you can offer.

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2 answers

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Answer 1

Hi @Paul S

I’m sorry you have spent so much time trying to reach the correct team, especially with thousands of messages involved and a recovery window that may be closing.

Because the emails were stored in Junk Email, please be aware that Outlook.com automatically removes messages from that folder after 30 days. If the messages no longer appear in Junk Email, immediately open Outlook.com on a PC or Mac, select Deleted Items, and then choose Recover items deleted from this folder. Search using a few known senders, subjects, or dates before restoring items in smaller batches.

Since you already have an existing support case, the most useful next step is to reconnect with Support and ask them to locate or associate that case rather than starting the explanation again. If the support page keeps returning to sign-in, try an InPrivate or Incognito window, clear Microsoft site cookies, disable browser extensions temporarily, and sign in with the same Microsoft account used when the case was created. Include the approximate deletion date, affected folder, and the estimated 6,800-message count.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so moderators cannot inspect the mailbox or restore server-side data. Only Outlook.com Support can check whether any remaining recovery option exists.

Thank you for your understanding.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Paul S 0 Reputation points

2026-10-08T01:03:00.8766667+00:00

Thanks for your response. Chloe. I believe the messages disappeared from the junk folder around 10 days after they were moved there because of a rule I created that did not work the way I thought it would. I deleted the rule as soon as I recognized the problem. The only PCs I have access to are at the public library. I made four trips there, and used three different computers. Each time, I used an incognito window. I don’t think I was able to delete cookies on the library’s PCs, but think I tried that at least once. I never saw anything in the delete folder on my iPad or on a PC. Everything disappeared from the junk folder except for about three weeks of the most recent messages. I spent an exceptional amount of time trying to work with this, but I just don’t have any hope of retrieving the missing messages unless I can make contact with a human at Microsoft support. Thanks again for your help.

Answer 2

For Outlook.com sign-in or mailbox-access problems, support agents cannot directly help with account sign-in or send recovery links. The supported path is:

If sign-in is failing or looping, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper first: Get help signing in.
If sign-in works in Outlook.com, open Help from the top menu, then Help.
Enter the issue in Search Help and press Return.
If the self-help results do not resolve it, scroll to the bottom of the Help pane and under Still need help? select Yes.
If the Help pane path does not work or sign-in still blocks access, use the Outlook.com support entry point: here.
If support is not replying, check whether the mailbox is full, because a full mailbox can prevent replies from support.

For missing Outlook.com mail, community guidance in similar cases also recommends checking Outlook.com in a web browser and reviewing Deleted Items and Recover items deleted from this folder before contacting support.

References: