A missing email may be in another folder, hidden by a display filter, in a different account, or never accepted by the provider. Work through the mailbox you can access and record what you checked. This guide helps you look without deleting messages or promising that a message can be restored.
Start here
Search in a controlled order
Confirm the mailbox first, then search broadly, inspect delivery settings, and ask the sender for evidence if needed.
Confirm the mailboxCheck the full address or account name before searching. Similar accounts can have separate mailboxes.Read this part
Search foldersLook across the relevant folders and clear display filters before narrowing the search.Read this part
Ask about deliveryAsk the sender for the sending time, address and any bounce or error message they received.Read this part
Confirm the account before searching
Check the complete address shown in webmail or the app. If you have personal, older or recovery accounts, a sender may have used a different address than expected. Search the provider's webmail where possible, because a local app may only show mail it has already downloaded.
Check the account's storage notice as well. If the provider cannot accept new messages because its storage is full, the message may have bounced before it became part of the mailbox. A full recipient mailbox is different from a message being hidden in a folder.
Some mail is stored only on a device or in a local mail archive. That mail may not appear in webmail. Avoid changing account settings until you know where the older messages are stored.
Search broadly without changing anything
In Gmail on a computer, open Show search options beside the search bar, then choose “Mail & Spam & Trash” in the Search dropdown when looking for a message. Try a sender address, a distinctive subject fragment or a short phrase. For example, enter person@example.com in From and invoice in Subject. These are example search details; use the sender and subject you actually expect. Leave an option blank when you do not know it, rather than guessing.
Do not assume that All Mail includes Spam or Trash. Check the relevant folders separately, including Archive, Junk or Spam, and Trash. Also clear date, sender, category or unread-only display filters that could be hiding a result.
Google notes that filters can skip the Inbox or delete incoming messages. Review filters, forwarding and related settings without editing unfamiliar security options. See Google's missing Gmail messages guidance.
Check the delivery story
Ask the sender to confirm the exact address, approximate sending time and whether they received a bounce. A bounce may point to a wrong address, a full mailbox, a server problem or filtering. It is evidence about that sending attempt, not proof that every message to the account is affected.
If you find forwarding that you do not recognise, stop making changes and use check account access after a scam for the security response. Do not disable security controls or delete unfamiliar rules simply to make the Inbox look normal.
Searching cannot guarantee recovery. A message that was never accepted, was permanently deleted, or exists only in a local archive may not be available in the online mailbox.
What to read next
If you’d rather have local help, see our personal email troubleshooting help.