The answer to both of these is usually a simple setting that you may have set and forgotten about. Web Access Email is normally sorted by date received with all mail visible whether you have read it or not. However you may want to change your view to make it easier to find a particular message. It is very important to note that once you change the setting, it will stay that way until you change it back.

The first thing to check is whether you are actually seeing all of your messages. This is especially important if you think your messages are disappearing after you read them. This is easy to check once you know where to look.

If you look at the picture above you will see the word Inbox in the center of the screen. Next to that in parentheses is the word Messages with a little arrow. If you click the arrow you can see that there are a lot of chioces. To see everything in your mailbox, you want to choose Messages. If you have unread messages selected, then once you read a message it will seem to disappear because it is no longer unread. It's still there, but you can't see it until you choose "Messages" again.

Once you are set back to the Messages view so that you see everything, the next thing you need to check is how you are sorting your mail. To see new messages as they come in, you need to have the Received field sorted with the arrow pointing down so the newest messages are on top.

If you have your mail sorted another way, like by subject, the messages will arrive to your mailbox but you won't see them, and you may think you didn't receive them. If you sort by attachment so that the messages with attachments are at the top of your inbox, (the paperclip), then when a new message comes in with an attachment you will see it, but if it has no attachment it will go to the back of the list and it will seem like it never arrived.

The two line view is handy if you find that you can't read your entire subject and you really need to. If you choose to use that view, just remember that it might not be as easy to see how you have sorted your mail.

One last note: your mail folders will sort separately of each other. So if you sort your inbox, your sent items will not be sorted that same way.

As you can see here, there are many ways to sort your email and sometimes it may help you find a message by changing the way you are sorting.

The most important thing to remember is that it will not change back by itself.

Just make sure that you always go back to having the received field sorted with the newest mail on top before you exit your mailbox and you should be good to go!

As always, if you have any questions, please call the helpdesk at 977-4936.

Thank you, Dulce Weigel
City of Stamford
Email Administrator