I wrote on my main blog about the fact that Hotmail deleted all the old emails I had on Hotmail.
The short version is, if you don’t log in to your Hotmail account for more than 30 days, your email is deleted. Google’s Gmail has a similar policy but only if you don’t log in for over (a far more reasonable) 9 months. Also, Gmail allows you to collect your email using POP so my mail client logs into my Gmail account automatically several times a day. For the same service on Hotmail, you have to pay.
Just so you know.
Greetings Tom
I really enjoy your podcasts….and I appreciate the OBVIOUS effort you put into preparing for them. You have my empathy and “best vibes” as you restart your email life. CHEERS! David
Is it possible for me to retrieve my emails which hotmail has deleted?
I feel your pain there Sir.
I just found out the same news.
Years of emails gone.
All that are left are memories.
If only there was a way to retrieve.
This happened to me too, much to my surprise. I don’t know if it’s been 30 days or not.
I’ve had an account since 1997 and I need a Microsoft passport to access the Microsoft Learning sites for Microsoft certified professionals.
I rely less on free e-mail accounts but I still had some items going to this account.
So, is there a way to retrieve emails in hotmail account that have been deleted or not? Any info is appreciated.
I’m afraid not Vugar - sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I have that from a senior member of the Microsoft Live team (Omar Shahine)
I have read the above and can not believe that my emails are gone. I desperately need it for a court case.
Can anybody help?
Delavonne - I’m forwarding your request to Microsoft but as far as I know there is no hope at all of Microsoft retrieving them.
A data recovery expert might be able to recover some of the emails from the cache on your computer but I would imagine this would be:
1. expensive and
2. unlikely to recover anything useful
Still if they are that important, it may be worth looking into.
hotmail destroyed my life, 8 years, impossible fuck***
This happened to me agian…
I had some very important e mails….
Anyone knows what to do ?
Alan
Question. If my e-mail got deleted, can I re-signup? Because, mine got deleted too, but it wasn’t so bad. There wasn’t a lot on it. >.
Hotmail deleted my messages that I kept in a folder and I had signed in in less than 30 days.
Hotmail just plain sucks. My hotmail account was my first ever email account and I used it before Yahoo! and Gmail came on the scene. Despite being a hotmail account owner since 1999, they actually have the gall to delete all my mails because I didn’t login for 30 days? That mighty pisses me off. How stupid can MS be? Do they need the hard-disk/archiving space so bad? How utterly dumb of them.
Instead of retaining their loyal customers, only Hotmail / Microsoft can be such an ass, they delete their customer’s emails and drive them away forever.
With no mail in my hotmail account, there’s absolutely NO reason for me to login again now. And who uses hotmail actively anyway? People who’ve not heard of Yahoo! Mail or Gmail have definitely been living under a rock for the past few years!
So long, Hotmail. Hope you realize that you’ve been cold for a while now. In case you didn’t notice, the EXIT sign is on the right.
I know what you mean, i have just looked in my email, and there are four messages left, everything was deleted including the warranty extension code i had for my laptop! S**t!
Yeah, i was usin windows live desktop mail and i had it to check for new msgs every 10 mins and all of a sudden all my msg’s were dissapearing, i thought it was just WLDM bein funny as it usualy does so i went to the website and they were bein deleted off there aswell. how shit is that. im gonna go and look for a better email provider now.
What a joke, no warning etc. my msn still works and the contact list is complete…but hey! its got nice adverts on the bottom! Microsoft is a dying company with no good new ideas….why change something that worked! I’ve been a linux user now for 6 months and won’t go back to MS. Try Mandriva Linux, its been great, loads of software, daily updates…no crashing…no viruses…and it runs my msn and yahoo messenger in one window! simple and FREE! screw microsoft!! oh….while I’m moaning..screw Skype too try Voipstunt its free to call not cheap!
Can I get me emails back….please!
yeah, it just deleted mine also but it did send me a congrats letter on signing up again
yaay
fuckin assholes
i want to retrieve my previous e-mails
Dear all.
I’m a Korean. I’ve just found this website because I googled same situation that I have.
I’m very very sad that MS hotmail deleted my email inbox for 8 years.
I don’t remember whether I didn’t login 1 month or not.
Do you have any suggestion to get back my 8 years emails from family, teachers and friends from all over the worlds?
It’s priceless. please, help me.
I didn’t know MS’s policy that delete all messages if users haven’t login for a month.
Please.
Thank you.
The email address contained viper etc
back in May / June
looking for a email addres containing viper in a email back in /April/May/ June to this computer
Containing viper
email address contains viper
i want to retrieve my previous e-mails, i marked all the junk and deleted, i looked for them in te deleted folder didn’t find any thing need help in retrieve my junk mail. can any one help
Hi!
Does anyone know if Hotmail saves addresses of incoming emails even if the Hotmail account has been closed and deleted by Microsoft some years ago?
Thanks
ABC
Hi!
Is there any chance to retrieve an email address (from an incoming email) from an account, which Hotmail has deleted some years ago?
ABC
can not sign into my hotmail account
The same thing happened to me. This is absolutely criminal! I, too, was storing lots of important data in those accounts. IF I did not need it for the Windows Live Account, I WOULD NOT have recreated the account.
They had an ALTERNATE email address for the hotmail account, couldn’t they have sent a WARNING email before JUST DELETING 8 Years of important, archived information?
Wow! This is a long running topic. I too… Victim like thousands of others… Trying to find out today if I could get my old emails. I had many contacts in there and emails that I would like to have had. Contacts for people that I will now probably never see or hear from again. I have been using Gmail for a few years now, so I guess it is my fault for holding on this old account (created in 99) and not transferring the information to my new account.
So, if anyone should be reading this BEFORE Microsoft deletes your email… Be wise and transfer your account to Yahoo or Google Mail.
For those of you reading this thread along with the other offers and have had your emails deleted; I offer my sympathy, as it seems we have all lost something important.
To be honest, it is acts like this that lead me to loathe and have absolute disgust for Microsoft. Heck, I even went to Apple (and yes, long before it became popular to do so). But good question, why did it become popular to switch to Apple? Because they at least give the image of caring for their customers and their customer user experience. Microsoft could learn a lot from them.
Seriously though, suck it Microsoft, I despise you and wish your company to be broken up and sold into tiny pieces. -Yeah, I know that will never happen… Wishful thinking though
I have one of my mail folders delted last week accidently…i dont know what to do now…
but to all those people who have comletetly lost all their emails, i must say you should run a campaign against microsoft. This 30 days sign in policy simply means that even if you goto a holiday for 30 days you should choose a place where you have internet access. this really sucks.
Mirosoft - the evil empire
So has hotmasil still got the “you must sign in within 30 days” thing? Cause I thought they updated it and now its like 90 days or sumthing… ??
Can someone answer this. I ahvwe an unusual problem, I want to know if an email I sent is just just sitting in someones inbox and they have not recieved it, or are they ignoring me (LOL).
See I did not get an “email could not be sent” message in my inbox so i know it was sent, I know it got the the persons email account… but maybe they have just not checked their email for a while so account is still open… ??
Please I would like all info I can get hahaha
Wow
What a company this Microsoft is ?
Snakes, rocks and dirt sitting now where i had a little sympathy left towards this company.
They just erased years of mailing.Leaving me out in the cold with just hatred in my heart for them.
It is time for Microsoft to admit they lost the game, they lost it for good…
Can’t we file a class action Law suit.
Trust microsoft services ? …Never again.
I use my hot mail account every day… yesterday everything was fine and now, today… my emails from over 4yrs have been deleted and i am not sure how or why this has happened I just logged in and saw that there was nothing there i conduct all my business from this account and now i have nothing, does any one know if microsoft has a back up system for situations like mine, they clearly made an error!
I don’t get it. My hot mail worked fine on saturday and on sunday I could not log on. I had to re register and now I have a live acccount and cannot log on to my old hot mail. How do I get my information? All my stuff goes to that account.
Yeah, Microsoft sucks. They deleted my 11 years of priceless emails and photos from my friends and family from all over the world. This was my first email account and I really treasured it. I opened it when I was 9 years old so it carried most of my memories. It feels like part of my life was erased. They should atleast have sent out warnings or email updating people of the new 30 day policy. I really hate microsoft.
Can someone hack into your email from 7-8 years ago and retrieve any messages that were deleted? It is legal in Canada to hack into someone’s email? If anyone can help I would appreciate it.
I am having hard time to sign in my hotmail account because is in korean how can I delete my account and creat a new one? Please help
sir,
as i had selected the new version of hotmail, i had lost all my saved messagesand contacts from the previous two versions. pls help me to get back my valuable messages. it would be appreciable.
thanks and regards
NANDA