My dad somehow managed to delete every single email from his Gmail account while he was just trying to clear out his spam folder. He claims he was only going through the spam, so I'm a bit confused about how he ended up deleting everything. I know there's an option to 'select all,' but isn't that limited to one folder at a time? I also have a suspicion he might not be fully honest about how it happened. Can someone explain how you could accidentally wipe an entire Gmail account all at once?
5 Answers
He might want to try using Google Takeout to export a backup of his emails. It’s a good way to safeguard emails going forward! Just for future reference, here's the link: https://takeout.google.com/u/0/settings/takeout?pli=1.
Setting up a second Gmail account that he doesn’t access should do the trick! You can auto-forward all emails to that account—this way, if he needs to retrieve something, you’ve got a backup.
Maybe he was using the Gmail app on his phone instead of the website? Sometimes, glitches can occur where emails seem to disappear, but they might not actually be deleted. It’s worth checking if he viewed it on a different platform.
When you delete emails, they go to the trash folder. He would have had to go in and delete the contents of the trash to wipe everything clean. Sounds like he may have done this double delete!
It sounds like he might have inadvertently selected all emails from a folder and deleted them without realizing where he was. Did he check the trash? Sometimes, items can be restored from there if they weren’t deleted from the trash too. That could be a simple oversight.
Unfortunately, he emptied the trash too. Looks like I might just have to turn back the clock and have him start printing out his important emails like it's 1995!