Why is gmail deleting all emails from a particular sender?

March 26, 2017 11:57 AM

Gmail has been deleting all emails from a particular sender and I can't figure out why. The obvious answer is that there's some filter set up which is causing this to happen, but if so, I can't find it. There's no filter set up, that I can tell, which would move all these emails to the trash. Is it possible that there are filters somewhere else in gmail that I should be checking? I've been looking in the obvious place--under Settings, in Filters and Blocked Addresses--and there's nothing that would explain how this is happening. (The address is not blocked, either.)
posted by lotf629 to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Is it sending it to trash or spam? If they go to spam, you may have accidentally selected them as spam. As far as I know, Gmail doesn't show you a list or filter or anything of senders you've marked as spam. If you go to your spam folder and right click on an e-mail from the address in question, you should have the option to mark it as "not spam" and that should fix the problem. Otherwise, they may just be tripping Gmail's internal spam detection. I think you should be able to create a filter for that specific address that says "never send this to spam."
posted by brook horse at 12:02 PM on March 26, 2017

At my office last week we got a presentation about new email fishing scams and one part of the scam involves the scammer setting up rules in your email box for specific targeted persons.

I have no idea if the emails you are worried about are from someone that could be a fishing target, like someone who deals with financial transactions, but it's worth being suspicious of what is going on here. Have your computer checked out and change all of your passwords.
posted by littlewater at 12:25 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I had this happen it turned out I had used unroll.me once and then forgotten​ about it.
posted by mama casserole at 1:03 PM on March 26, 2017

I accidentally muted a conversation recently, which meant it wasn't showing up in my inbox, spam, or trash. If that's what happened, you should be able to use the search bar to find it.

Muting in gmail
posted by momus_window at 2:04 PM on March 26, 2017

This happened to me and it was an ex who had logged into my account and was deleting things he sent. YMMV.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 3:11 AM on March 27, 2017

This hasn't happened to me, but I immediately suspected what yes I said yes I will Yes said.

Note, that even if gmail security is only showing access from your device, and no 3rd party applications are allowed, it could be that your machine is compromised and the other party is using one of your devices to access your gmail. In this situation changing your password and logging out accounts isn't sufficient.
posted by nobeagle at 7:05 AM on March 27, 2017

This has happened to me, and in my case it was something to do with the other person's smart phone settings that made all of their emails look like they were phishing. We never figured out how to fix it, that person just has to email me at my work email now. Not much help, but you're definitely not crazy!
posted by LeeLanded at 7:58 AM on March 27, 2017