Recovering trashed emails
QI was clearing out loads of emails, but inadvertently selected all instead of just the messages I had originally selected. I was puzzled when those messages promptly vanished from my iMac, which connects to the same iCloud account. How can I get the trashed messages back?
AWhen you keep your mail in iCloud, changes made on one connected system alter what’s stored in iCloud, thus what all other devices see. This is good, because it means that all your devices can access your latest incoming messages, and you can reply to them using any device. But it also means that deleting messages removes them from iCloud and all devices connected to it.
If you’re using Apple’s Mail or another mail client which keeps Trash, you could of course retrieve your messages from the Trash before they are automatically removed from that – a setting made in Mail’s Preferences, in the Accounts item, and Mailbox Behaviours tab. If they’ve been emptied already, then your only chance is to retrieve them from the most recent backup which you made before deleting them.
If you’ve been using Time Machine, this should be straightforward. Time Machine does back up what you have stored in iCloud, unless you specifically exclude it from doing so. If you don’t have a recent backup, then I’m afraid that your messages have gone.