Lost Email
On this page:
Overview
- You might accidentally delete some email that you wanted.
- Your email program could malfunction.
- Something could go wrong with the Stanford mail system.
If you use a desktop email program
If you use Outlook, Eudora or some other desktop email program and you received email that you know has disappeared, you can look for it directly on your mailspool by opening Webmail and checking your Inbox. This works especially well if you've chosen the "Leave mail on server" option in your regular desktop email program: if you receive email, delete it right away, then realize you still want it you can always find it via Webmail.
If you use Webmail and your mail has disappeared after opening Pine or another UNIX email program
By default Pine will connect to your mailbox using the POP protocol and download your mail into your AFS directory where only Pine and other email programs can access it.
You can move the messages from Pine back to the mail server by logging onto cardinal or vine, etc. with a program like SecureCRT and typing the following command:
respool-email
Those who are interested in using Pine in conjunction with Webmail or another email program that uses IMAP can configure Pine to behave as an IMAP client. See the following document for instructions:
Using Stanford IMAP with Mutt and Pine
If you use a Pine (or some other UNIX mail client)
http://leland-docs.stanford.edu/pinefaq.html#RECOVER_DELETE
UNIX clients pull email off your mailspool and place it into the Mail directory of your Leland account. Your email on the mailspool is then deleted from the server. This lets you retrieve your mail directly from your Leland account. The instructions shown here apply to Pine, Stanford's officially supported UNIX mail client. (They may also work for Elm and some other UNIX clients.)
Restore my email
The self-service email restore tool is not available for the new Stanford Email system at this time. If you have accidentally deleted some email and it is no longer on the server, it may be possible to restore it from the backup. Please ask for a restore via a HelpSU request. System administrators will restore your mail from the most recent copy available on the backup. This copy will have been from sometime in the previous six days (the exact date will vary).
This applies only to people who
- use IMAP email, and
- request the restoration of their email within six days of losing it.
If it's been more than seven days since you lost your email you're out of luck: use the Email Header Recovery tool (below) instead. Note too that if you deleted any email messages using a POP-based email protocol you won't be able to retrieve those messages at all. POP clears email off the server completely and immediately: there's nothing left on the server to restore.
Use the email header recovery tool
http://mailrestore.stanford.edu
By filling out this form you can get a list of all the email addresses from which you received email. You can get a list of such addresses (plus the titles of each email sent to you) from as long as three months ago. Armed with this list you can find out who sent you email, and then ask them to re-send it.
