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Can I retrieve deleted emails I've deleted from my bin & trash folder on my Apple Mac?

Hi there,

I've accidentally deleted "All" my emails from my trash folder on my Apple Mac. I signed into my iCloud account online, & they've been deleted there also, . . . .'Arghhh'.


However, I do have an AirPort Time Capsule, Time Machine, . . . . .so is it possible to retrieve my deleted emails utilising this at all? If so, how do I do this please, (step by step, as I'm no computer whizz 🙄)


Many Thanks🤞

Chucklede


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Feb 24, 2022 2:12 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 24, 2022 5:55 PM

Bob Hi Again,

Thanks once more for your prompt response, . . . . . . . . . . . I'm not sure if I'm doing something, Or not doing something, . . . .but here's the thing, . . . . . . when I click into my mail agent on my MacBook, then into "Inbox", then click on TimeMachine etc, wherever I seem to go on the right hand side in TimeMachine, to an earlier date, . . . . .there's no actual folders, files or anything I can see as such, it just gives me the option to click on a date, a screen appears asking if I wish to restore from that date etc, . . . . & so far, it's a big fat 'Zero'. There's the same number of recent emails (mainly from yesterday, new one's) & nothing else. I'm beginning to think that I may not be able to locate & restore them, . . . . . . . However, I shan't give up all hope entirely, until I have spoken with a tech person from AppleSupport, . . . . I missed their opening times, being able to contact them until tomorrow (well later today now) .

You've been a really great help support, & I really have appreciated 'all' your suggestions thus far, & if I do manage to get a solution to my frustrating costly error, I will be sure to come back here & post it for anyone else who may do a similar thing to myself.


Thanks Once Again Bob,

Regards & Much Gratitude,

Chucklede 🙏

9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 24, 2022 5:55 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob Hi Again,

Thanks once more for your prompt response, . . . . . . . . . . . I'm not sure if I'm doing something, Or not doing something, . . . .but here's the thing, . . . . . . when I click into my mail agent on my MacBook, then into "Inbox", then click on TimeMachine etc, wherever I seem to go on the right hand side in TimeMachine, to an earlier date, . . . . .there's no actual folders, files or anything I can see as such, it just gives me the option to click on a date, a screen appears asking if I wish to restore from that date etc, . . . . & so far, it's a big fat 'Zero'. There's the same number of recent emails (mainly from yesterday, new one's) & nothing else. I'm beginning to think that I may not be able to locate & restore them, . . . . . . . However, I shan't give up all hope entirely, until I have spoken with a tech person from AppleSupport, . . . . I missed their opening times, being able to contact them until tomorrow (well later today now) .

You've been a really great help support, & I really have appreciated 'all' your suggestions thus far, & if I do manage to get a solution to my frustrating costly error, I will be sure to come back here & post it for anyone else who may do a similar thing to myself.


Thanks Once Again Bob,

Regards & Much Gratitude,

Chucklede 🙏

Feb 24, 2022 2:27 PM in response to Chucklede

No guarantees, but worth a try.


On your Mac, open up your mail program and then open up the Trash folder


Then.....open up Time Machine on your Mac by clicking on the "clock" icon at the top of the Mac's screen and then clicking on Enter Time Machine

Give things 5-15 minutes to load

Using the timeline scale on the right side of the Time Machine window, go back to a point in time right before you deleted the files from the Trash

See if the old files might still be there

If so, click Restore at the bottom of the Time Machine window


If the Restore works, you may see a new different Trash icon when you open up the mail program again

Feb 24, 2022 2:44 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Hi There Bob,

Thanks so much for your prompt response, . . . . . . . .alas, I've just tried that, . . . . . . . . & sadly, it has not brought back my deleted mails, . . . . there were over 1,000+ I've now lost. I did a silly thing really, I dumped them all into my deleted folder, as I was then going to go through them, & manually put back what I wanted to keep (yeah, long way round, I know) as they were taking up too much room all at once, . . . . . . a BIG lesson I'm now learning as something NOT TO DO in the future. Surely though Bob, nothing in 'real terms' is ever completely gone, surely there's a way to retrieve them?]


Many Thanks Again For Your Reply.🙂

Feb 24, 2022 3:09 PM in response to Chucklede

nothing in 'real terms' is ever completely gone, surely there's a way to retrieve them?


Sorry, but not likely. But, you will need a court order to your mail provider to find out for sure. Even then, the provider may not have kept them, or kept them for a very short period.


That might be why politicians get in big trouble for deleting their emails, since they really are "gone" in most cases.


If you really need the emails, you can try opening your "In Box" or "New Mail Box" and then go back in time using Time Machine to try to find them that way......before they were sent to the Trash. Going to take a very long time to work through this though.



Feb 24, 2022 5:27 PM in response to Chucklede

Same basic process as before.


You will have to first open the "New Mail" or "Inbox" in your mail program


Then, open Time Machine and give it some time to load


Use the timeline scale at the right of the Time Machine window to go back to various dates in the past to see how the "New Mail" or "Inbox" looked at that given time. You might want to start with a recent backup first, then work your way back in time.


If you see an email that was deleted, click the Restore button


Keep repeating the same process with other dates in Time Machine. It's going to take a long time.......maybe a very long time......before you notice any real progress, because you will be looking for emails one at a time.


Frankly, I've never done anything like this.....looking for hundreds of emails. That may take forever. I've always just gone back a few days to find an email that was Trashed and deleted by mistake.


Perhaps another user who has done something like this will post with some tips to help us out.


Feb 24, 2022 7:49 PM in response to Chucklede

Sorry, but I cannot really add any more to what I've already said. I went through this again to double check as follows:


I opened my Mail application, which displays a mail account that is using an AOL email address

(If you are using a different type of email address, then things may not be the same as AOL)

I clicked on the In Box to display current email messages in that mailbox


Opened up Time Machine and gave the application about 10 minutes to load

The current messages in the In Box are displayed


I clicked on the timeline at the right of Time Machine window and selected a date about a week ago

Time Machine took a few seconds to display the In Box for that date, which was of course different than the current In Box


There is a Restore button at the bottom of the In Box display. If I click on Restore, the week old In Box will appear in my current Mail program and I can look at the messages that way.


But, to do this looking for hundreds of different emails on different dates is going to take tons of time. I can't guess how much time would be involved for something like this.

Mar 10, 2022 11:28 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Hey Again Bob,

Just popped by, to give you an update. After speaking with numerous Apple Tech Support members, they eventually escalated my case, & I got to speak with a top tech person, who managed to locate my deleted emails from off of their apple servers, & I got more than 10,000 (Lol 🤦🏼‍♀️) deleted & old emails coming back. Extremely grateful for getting the original ones that I didn't want deleted, & shan't moan & groan about the thousands of extras, as it IS a valuable lesson learned.


Many Thanks Again to you Bob, for your prompt responses, invaluable info & suggestion of support,

very much appreciated indeed.


Kind Regards

Chucklede🙃

Can I retrieve deleted emails I've deleted from my bin & trash folder on my Apple Mac?

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