Misfiled Messages in GMail

The issue

Google has notified Berkeley Lab Google administrators that a recent global Google issue may have affected messages in 167 LBL GMail accounts. This caused some actions that were taken, e.g., deleting a message, marking it as spam, or moving it to a folder to be inadvertently applied to a different message.

This issue affected only actions taken in Mail for iOS, Mail in a mobile browser, and Mail Offline. It did NOT affect Mail in a web browser or Mail for Android.

Next steps

Each one of the 167 individuals will be notified by email on Thursday January 30, 2014. If you are one of them, read on.

By February 14, 2014:

• Check your Trash and Spam folders for any items that you didn’t intend to delete or mark as spam.
• Restore any misfiled messages by moving them back to your Inbox or intended folder.

Important

The issue occurred between January 15 and January 21, 2014 on messages that were deleted or moved in GMail for iOS or GMail in a mobile browser.  Please move these messages from the Trash and Spam folders by February 14, 2014 since messages are permanently deleted 30 days after they’re placed in the Trash. Also, you may find messages in your inbox that you originally intended for Trash, Spam, or other folders. You will need to move these messages.

Contact

If you have questions about this message, contact the IT Help Desk at x4357.

Note from Google

Below is the explanation from the Google Apps Team regarding the cause of the issue:

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.