Member Avatar for dark_ether

I've been having some problems with ms outlook 2007 running on XP.
Randomly some emails will disappear from sent items or the inbox (around 5% of emails) its not the oldest or newest emails, and there doesn't appear to be any pattern of who the emails are too/from either.
I've searched all folders for them including the deleted items folder (which I dont empty terribly often).
Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this or how to resolve it?
I haven't had much luck searching for a solution.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Bob_180_Bob

Dani AI

Generated

Intermittent disappearance of messages in Outlook 2007 can come from several distinct causes. Common culprits are view/filters that hide items, rules or AutoArchive moving mail, synchronization differences between POP/IMAP/Exchange clients (including phones or webmail), third‑party add‑ins or antivirus interference, and occasional PST corruption. The checklist below is ordered from least invasive to more advanced so data is protected first; it applies to the scenario raised by and will also help anyone chiming in later (eg. ).

Quick checks

  • Reset the folder view and remove any filters so hidden items aren’t being masked.
  • Use Advanced Find (Ctrl+Shift+F) to search “All Mail Items” for a missing message by subject/sender.
  • Inspect Archive/AutoArchive PSTs, Junk/Spam folders and any Search Folders.
  • Review Rules and Alerts for moves/deletes.
  • Confirm account type (POP3 vs IMAP vs Exchange) and whether other clients/devices might be deleting or moving messages on the server.

Diagnostic & repair steps

  • Launch Outlook in safe mode (outlook.exe /safe) to rule out add‑ins.
  • Back up the PST first, then run the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) on any local PST.
  • Create a fresh Outlook profile and re-add the account to see if the problem persists.
  • For Exchange mailboxes, use the server recover/deleted items features to retrieve recently removed messages.
  • Advanced: use MFCMAPI only if comfortable inspecting mailbox folder contents.

Prevention & next steps

  • Keep a regular exported backup of PSTs, apply Office updates, and disable suspect add‑ins or AV mail scanning while testing. If the issue remains after these steps, involve the mail server administrator or escalate to vendor support for server‑side logs and retention policy checks.
Member Avatar for dark_ether

Apologies for putting this in the wrong forum!

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

If you find yours, please tell me as mine could be there as well!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

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