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Apple mail emails disappear after I get a notification

Wildgift

Wildgift

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 21, 2007
426
20
I am having a weird situation where I get a notification of an email to my iCloud email address--say, Wayfair or USPS. I open the notification, and the email is gone. It's nowhere to be found; not in trash or in junk. The same is true on my Mac and my iPhone. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks!
 
I don't know for sure but you should probably check all your notification settings at Settings>Notifications>Mail including everything in "Customize Notifications". I ended up turning everything off in the customize area. I think those were on by default and my Mail notifications were not behaving as I like them to.
 
BrianBaughn said:
I don't know for sure but you should probably check all your notification settings at Settings>Notifications>Mail including everything in "Customize Notifications". I ended up turning everything off in the customize area. I think those were on by default and my Mail notifications were not behaving as I like them to.
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The problem is not with the notifications. Rather, it is that the actual emails themselves virtually vanish when I click on the notification to look at the email. Crazy!
 
I'm glad you posted this as I posted the below earlier today. It very strange and worrying as if I didn't check my email count between mac and phone I'd be losing important emails:

"I've found since upgrading to Ventura that the Mail app randomly deletes emails from my Mac. I only know this when I compare the mail count and notice it's out by 2 or 3 compared to my iPhone. I then search for that email and find it in the Bin

I'm using the .Mac / iCloud email address. Is anyone else seeing this?"
 
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Amigaman said:
I'm seeing the same thing on my MacBook Pro running Ventura. Only difference is mine randomly deletes different email. It's so odd.
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what do you mean by delete a different email?

My deleted items can be any email from the mailbox on my Mac.
 
BrianBaughn said:
I don't know for sure but you should probably check all your notification settings at Settings>Notifications>Mail including everything in "Customize Notifications". I ended up turning everything off in the customize area. I think those were on by default and my Mail notifications were not behaving as I like them to.
Click to expand...

I don't see "Customize Notifications" anywhere in Settings>Notifications>Mail, nor in Mail>Settings.

Mail Notifications haven't worked as they should for me since several OS upgrades ago...
 
Unsupported said:
I don't see "Customize Notifications" anywhere in Settings>Notifications>Mail, nor in Mail>Settings.

Mail Notifications haven't worked as they should for me since several OS upgrades ago...
Click to expand...
On my iPhone 8 running iOS 16.2…

nm.jpeg

Not that that's the OP's issue. However, the settings in that section seem to me to be able to screw things up…notification-wise.
 
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I've had random emails evaporate from my iCloud acc't. (iOS iPad 16.2 and Mac mini Monterey OS 12.6) I see the notification, click on Mail, and poof! Tough to know which ones you're missing as you probably just glance at the notification. I was expecting a reply to a specific email and "thought" it was that one. Yup. Confirmed it w/ an email from a separate account. Various places suggest Rebuilding the mailbox. Haven't tried it yet but am mulling. Always afraid that somehow emails will be lost.
 
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I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but, over the last 2 days, my mail seems to be stable and the unread count on both phone on Mac is the same. Whether read emails have gone missing though I do not know!
 
You have not set the general mail settings to show only unread messges?

Or, maybe something like this has been configured:

One way to do this is to set up a rule in the Mail app that automatically moves or deletes messages that have been marked as read. To set up a rule, open the Mail app, go to the "Mail" menu, and select "Preferences." Then, click on the "Rules" tab and create a new rule. You can specify conditions for the rule, such as "if any of the following conditions are met" or "if all of the following conditions are met." You can also specify actions for the rule, such as "move to trash" or "mark as deleted."
 
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Cyby-CyberDog said:
You have not set the general mail settings to show only unread messges?

Or, maybe something like this has been configured:

One way to do this is to set up a rule in the Mail app that automatically moves or deletes messages that have been marked as read. To set up a rule, open the Mail app, go to the "Mail" menu, and select "Preferences." Then, click on the "Rules" tab and create a new rule. You can specify conditions for the rule, such as "if any of the following conditions are met" or "if all of the following conditions are met." You can also specify actions for the rule, such as "move to trash" or "mark as deleted."
Click to expand...
Thank you for this tip.

My Mac shows the total number of emails, which is brilliant. But I believe that iOS cannot show the total number of email and only shows total number of unread emails. Therefore, it's not possible to know if I've lost emails from my Mac (unless I count each and every single one of them).
 
scouser75 said:
Thank you for this tip.

My Mac shows the total number of emails, which is brilliant. But I believe that iOS cannot show the total number of email and only shows total number of unread emails. Therefore, it's not possible to know if I've lost emails from my Mac (unless I count each and every single one of them).
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In mail settings on iOS you can check show all incoming and uncheck unread only messges?
 
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Thank you. I just checked and Unread is not selected. But still all I can see is the count only for unread.

I've also had another 2 emails get auto deleted on the Mac today. So worrying as I don't want to lose any urgent emails.
 
What you can try is remove/deactivate your iCloud Mail from iPhone and activitate it again, check if it works properly again.
 
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Cyby-CyberDog said:
What you can try is remove/deactivate your iCloud Mail from iPhone and activitate it again, check if it works properly again.
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Thing is, my iPhone is not the problem device. It's my Mac. This is where emails go missing from. I then have to look at my iPhone to see which emails have gone missing from the Mac. - cross checking if you like.
 
Try the same on your Mac, Quit Apple Mail, disable iCloud Mail in SystemSettings, open Mail again to check if iCloud Mail is gone (should be, just check to be sure) enable iCloud Mail in System Settings again and check what happens.
 
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One thing that seems to hit a lot of people is the Filter on Mac Mail. It sometimes sticks in the ON position, even though it appears off. Have you tried clicking it on and off to see if the missing emails return?
 
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