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Can you help me restore lost or deleted emails or conversation history?

ID: SLN2552
Refers to: Yahoo! Account , Mail , Mail Classic , Mobile Mail , Messenger 11.5 , Messenger 11 , Messenger 10 and earlier , Messenger Mobile , Messenger iPhone , Messenger Android

Description

If you have noticed that some email messages or entries in your conversation history are unexpectedly deleted, it may be possible to recover them. We recommend reading the article Emails are missing from one or more folders before requesting help restoring emails. In most cases, the content is simply hidden from view and not deleted at all.

We also recommend you read the tips below and back up your data before contacting customer care.


Resolution

In some cases, we can restore lost or deleted emails and instant messages (IMs). However, we cannot guarantee a successful restore, and there is a limited time frame in which a restore is possible.

Before requesting our help restoring emails, please carefully read the following information:

  • We can only restore messages that were lost in the last 48 hours.
  • We can’t guarantee a successful restore.
  • The restore process causes your most recent emails and instant messages to be permanently deleted.
    -
    When we perform a restore, we return your account to exactly the way it looked when your missing messages were there.
    - Any emails sent or received after that time will be deleted, and cannot be retrieved.
  • Before requesting a restore: Backup any messages sent or received within the last 48 hours that you want to keep.
  • Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger are connected:
    - If a restore is performed on one, the other is also restored to the same date.
    - Therefore, you also will lose a record of any IM conversation history archives of messages sent or received after the restore time.
  • IM conversation history archives for Yahoo! Messenger for Windows (versions 10 and below) and Yahoo! Messenger for Mac cannot be recovered using this process.

Important information about what cannot be done in the restore process:

  • We cannot pick specific emails.
  • We cannot pull a certain time frame, such as a week or a month.
  • We cannot pick a date range from one date to another.

If you would still like to request a restore attempt, after considering the information above, please fill out our Restore help form.



Last updated: May 16, 2012
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