Outlook 2013/ Windows 8 emails being deleted

Question

I was away from my laptop (accessing email via iPad & iPhone) for a week in June after installing the new Outlook.  I save certain important emails (bills/things I haven't read yet, etc.) in my inbox.  When hundreds of new emails came in
that week, all the old emails were deleted & can't be found anywhere to be retrieved.  I could still access them on google mail online, but didn't remember every one that I had saved.  My previous organization was impossible to retrieve there.
 I recently returned from a 2-week trip where, of course, thousands of emails came in to my laptop at home.  I accessed all emails on my iPad while I was away.  Since so many came in I only got about 8 days' worth of email downloaded into Outlook.
 And of course all my older emails I had been saving are gone again...not able to be found anywhere.  If I had not moved them into specific folders, they are gone.  Any suggestions to prevent this in the future?  Settings?  Ways to
get these lost emails?  No search (even in deleted or spam folders) show these missing emails.

Answer 1

Hi,
First thing to confirm is which mail account type are you using? Can you still view old messages from web-access?
You can check the steps below:
1. Check if you have created rules to automatically delete or move mails.
2. Check if you have enabled AutoArchive and have set it to automatically delete expired emails.
If you have enabled AutoArchive, to get the lost emails, search archive.pst or *.PST in the local drive.
For Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 the default location is:
        C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files\
If you have multiple pst-files you can get an overview via:
        File-> Account Settings-> Account Settings-> tab Data Files
Import Outlook items from pst-file to check the result:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/import-outlook-items-from-an-outlook-data-file-pst-HA102919679.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA102749454
->Any suggestions to prevent this in the future? Settings?
Assuming you are using IMAP account, to make sure you don’t lose any of data, you’ll need to create backups of your IMAP pst-file or regularly export the folders:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm
Hope this helps.
Regards