Sending, receiving, and organizing email in Outlook.com
English-only support.
For missing older sent mail in Outlook.com/Hotmail, the supported checks are limited to what has already been tried:
- Confirm sent items are being saved in Outlook if this is being viewed in Outlook for Windows:
- Go to File > Options > Mail.
- Under Save messages, make sure Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder is enabled.
- Check whether the messages were moved or deleted and are still recoverable:
- Open Deleted Items and Junk Email.
- If the messages are there, use Move or Restore.
- In Outlook.com or Outlook on the web, if the items are no longer in Deleted Items, open Deleted Items and use Recover items deleted from this folder.
- Check for rules that may have moved messages out of the mailbox:
- Open Rules settings and review any Inbox or Sweep rules.
- Edit or delete any rule that is incorrectly moving mail.
- Rule editing must be done on a computer.
- Check account activity if unauthorized access is suspected:
- Review the Recent activity page for sign-ins from the last 30 days.
If the missing sent messages are not in Deleted Items, Junk Email, Archive, or Recoverable Items, the available self-service recovery options in the provided guidance are exhausted. The remaining step is to contact Outlook.com support through the Still need help? path in Outlook.com.