Gmail issue

[GloveFromAbove]

Apologies, not terribly computer literate!

I have a Mac running Outlook where I can check my gmail emails. I usually use the mail app on my iPhone, but occasionally check on my computer. I store the emails I want to keep in folders, which are the same on my phone and on the Mac.

Tonight, when I've checked my emails on my phone, they were disappearing before my eyes, each folder just emptying. I hadn't deleted anything, they were going. As I opened each folder I could see the emails there, but they then disappeared.

On my phone when I search for emails, it comes up with the emails I'm searching for, BUT I can't see them in the folders, so it looks as though my email is empty.

On my Mac the folders are all empty, except for the bin folder which contains some emails I've previously deleted (and deleted from trash) going back a couple of years. All in random order. When I search for the same emails as I searched for on my phone, there's nothing there.

When I use the browser and access my email account, there's nothing there.

So my emails are there on my phone when I search, but not when I look at folders. On my Mac (Outlook) there's random ones there and on the browser there's nothing there.

I just need to be able to see the emails I've saved in the folders again and both syncing on phone, Mac and browser. I definitely didn't delete anything, I didn't do anything at all. Clearly they're there (when I search on phone) but I can't see them.

There's tickets for holidays, train tickets, theatre tickets etc, stiff relating to a house sale for me, a house sale for a relative etc.

It has done this before but I clicked 'sync' accounts and they all came back. I've done the same but it hasn't worked.

Can anyone help? thanks in advance!

Are you running logging onto a gmail account whilst using Outlook? Outlook is microsoft-based so there may be issues syncing the your phone app with Mac outlook using a gmail account. But I cant say for certain. Could you set up a different email account with @outlook.com then try syncing to your phone and see if that throws up the same issue? Faffy I know.

Oh hang on, when you set up the folders on your Mac app (for example a folder called 'Work' or whatever) did you log onto your phone's mail app and create a folder called 'Work' there too? Or did you just set up the folders on one device then tell that device to sync with the other if that makes sense?

If the former it could be that those folders are being treated as two separate entities and whilst you've put saved emails in one folder on one device, it doesn't know where to store them on the secondary device because you created a separate folder and the two arent the same.

Thanks Blind. No I set up the folders on my Mac and it synced to my phone (and also the gmail website?). it has worked for years.

I really need these emails back! It's all the details for insurance etc, holidays, absolutely my whole admin life!

And now, what's in the three inboxes (browser, phone and Mac) is totally different?

Sorry just adding info now, all the inboxes have random emails, ones I've deleted two years ago in one inbox. There's definitely some sort of issue.

I just opened gmail app on my phone and there were no options down the side to look in different folders etc. I went to the top and selected a particular inbox (I have 4 linked) and was then able to use it as normal.

Also, I recently created two new folders and moved several emails into them on my pc. They left my inbox, but didn't appear in the folders. I panicked, but then looked on my phone app and they had indeed moved to the new folders and were showing on my phone, but not on the pc. Next day I went on pc again and it was all ok.

Not much help but hopefully reassuring that it may just be a strange glitch that will rectify itself over time.

Meant to say, my first issue was this morning and the new folder issue was day before yesterday.