Mail app deleted new iCloud mail before I could read it, and it's not in the trash or anywhere else

[AVR2]

I just bought a licence key for an app. The mail with the key appeared in my iCloud inbox, but before I could open it it disappeared. I now can't find it anywhere; it wasn't moved to a different folder and it's not in the Trash or Junk folders. I don't have any Rules set that would cause anything to happen to it. Doing a rebuild of the mailbox didn't help.

I've asked the vendor for a re-send, but are there any suggestions as to what happened?

I don't know if it's any indication of an issue, but when Mail does its periodic polling of the server, or I force it to check for mail, it always says "Downloading 5 new messages". Every single time, even when there's nothing there.

OSX 10.15.7, Mail 13.4

 

[chown33]

I suggest logging into the browser-based version of iCloud, then using the Mail "app" that appears there. It should show recent contents of your In Box, a Trash with recently deleted emails, etc.

iCloud

Log in to iCloud to access your photos, mail, notes, documents and more. Sign in with your Apple Account or create a new account to start using Apple services.

www.icloud.com

At the very least, you can confirm that what the web-based iCloud Mail shows you is the same as what the Mac-resident Mail.app shows.

 

[AVR2]

I suggest logging into the browser-based version of iCloud, then using the Mail "app" that appears there. It should show recent contents of your In Box, a Trash with recently deleted emails, etc

I already did that. It's not there.

I actually saw the mail first on my iPhone. When I got home I saw it in the Mail app on my MBP and was about to open it, but then it vanished, and it had gone from my iPhone too. Inevitably, the sync process that saw it deleted from those devices saw it deleted from the browser version of iCloud Mail.

 

[cdcastillo]

Maybe someone else has access to your mail? They could have deleted it and then emptied the trash...

 

[sgtaylor5]

Don’t use the Catalina Mail app; there are known mail loss bugs:

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/10/11/mail-data-loss-in-macos-10-15/

in other words, that license email is deleted from everywhere.

 

[noleli]

Don’t use the Catalina Mail app; there are known mail loss bugs:

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/10/11/mail-data-loss-in-macos-10-15/

in other words, that license email is deleted from everywhere.

I just heard about this yesterday. It’s shocking that it’s been an issue for so long and isn’t being talked about all over the place.