How do I get my missing @me.com email subfolders back?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How do I get my missing @me.com email subfolders back?

I renamed one subfolder of my @me.com Inbox on my HP desktop and then 15 extra folders appeared with the same new name but on top of their existing folder names.

All are empty but I am now also missing a whole lot of my subfolders and their contents.

Also no subfolders are showing on my iPad,and only a few (including 3 of the new mutant ones) show on my iPhone.

How do I get my subfolders and emails back please!?

[Edited by Moderator]

Original Title: Email subfolders of Inbox

Posted on Sep 8, 2025 06:23 PM

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Answer 1

Neile88 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 8, 2025 07:01 PM in response to Neile88

Turns out that the phantom folders have taken over existing folders. The subfolders of each are accessible when I log into the account online but the Folders themselves are empty ... which means I've lost a lot of emails.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

153,574 points

Sep 8, 2025 07:30 PM in response to Neile88

You may have stumbled into unknown territory with the app you were using on your HP desktop. Who knows what it may have done, but those apparently misspelled / truncated names suggest its organizational structure has become corrupted. That corruption may have affected your iCloud Mail account in some way, which also seems to be affecting your iPad and iPhone. Obviously all anyone can do is speculate, but however it happened let's concentrate on fixing the problem.

Log into iCloud Mail using your Apple Account credentials, here:

https://www.icloud.com/mail/

Determine if you can find your missing folders or email messages there. Look in Trash, Archive, or whatever other folders may be present.

This particular support site is primarily for Apple's Mail app, so you may need to investigate whatever client app your HP desktop uses for other possible solutions.

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Answer 3

Neile88 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 8, 2025 09:29 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks for your response John,

In iCloud Mail the renamed folders are spread throughout the whole list rather than in the 'cluster' shown in Outlook.

The list generally is out of order, and some subfolders are under the wrong folders.

There are definitely quite a lot of emails missing completely from the renamed folders.

I use Outlook for my email accounts. There is only a problem with the Apple account, which is my main address.

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

153,574 points

Sep 9, 2025 04:22 PM in response to Neile88

I think the next step would be to contact your organization's Microsoft Exchange administrator (*) to determine what went wrong, and to inquire about the possibility of recovering those lost messages. Most likely, they are backed up somewhere but that would be under their control so you will definitely need their assistance.

* I am assuming they use Microsoft Exchange, but that's only because you wrote you're using Outlook. I don't know if those subjects are strictly related to one another. For all I know it could be a Microsoft Outlook bug.

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