Where Did That Gmail Go?: Google Engineers Identify & Fix Gmail Bug

Google’s Gmail engineering team recently discovered that some Gmail users experienced an issue where actions such as deleting, reporting spam, starring, archiving, or moving an email to a folder were incorrectly applied to a different message than the one the user was viewing. This resulted in some messages being placed in the user's Trash, Spam, or other folders.  The issue occurred for users who were accessing Gmail for iOS and Gmail in a mobile browser.

Google fixed this issue, but you should check your Spam and Trash folders for any messages that may have been misfiled. Make sure to perform this task by February 14, 2014 (messages are permanently deleted 30 days after they're placed in the Trash).  To refile a message, move it to the Inbox in the same way you would transfer an email to another folder. Not everyone in the Fordham community was affected by this bug. Fordham IT sent an email to all the users who were potentially affected by it. 

If you need assistance with restoring your misfiled emails, please contact IT Customer Care at 718-817-3999. 

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Google sent Fordham IT the following email about the bug: 

Dear Google Apps Administrator, 

Important: We discovered an issue that resulted in some of your Google Apps fordham.edu users’ messages being incorrectly placed in their Trash, Spam, or other folders. The issue affected users’ actions only in Gmail for iOS, Gmail in a mobile browser, and Gmail Offline. The issue is now fixed. However, users must take action to re-file these messages in Gmail by February 14, 2014. 

What happened Between January 15 and January 21, 2014, an issue in Gmail caused some actions, such as deleting, reporting spam, starring, archiving, or moving a message to a folder, to be incorrectly applied to a different message than the message the user was viewing. As a result, some messages may be unintentionally located in your users’ Trash or Spam, or other folders. 

Recommended actions We recommend that you advise [affected] users to check their Trash and Spam folders for any items that they did not intend to delete or mark as spam. Users can restore any misfiled messages by moving them back to their Inbox. These messages should be moved from the Trash and Spam folders by February 14, 2014 (messages are permanently deleted 30 days after they’re placed in the Trash). Also, users may find messages in their Inbox that they originally intended for Trash, Spam, or other folders, and will need to move these messages. 

About the issue The cause of the issue was a bug in a software update to Gmail on January 15. Once the issue was reported to the Gmail engineering team, they identified the root cause and issued a fix on January 21, and identified the users whose messages may have been incorrectly placed in Trash or Spam folders. The Gmail engineering team performed an internal review and is implementing a series of measures to address the source of the issue, improve early detection of these types of problems, and help prevent recurrence. 

We sincerely apologize for the disruption to your organization. Google is committed to continually and quickly improving our technology and operations to ensure secure access and avoid service disruptions. 

Sincerely, 

The Google Apps Team