AOL deleted about 250,000 users' old emails three days ago, and is only beginning to restore them today.

We first head about the breakdown when a user wrote us to complain.

"I have been a customer for over a decade and I logged in on Monday, only to find that my entire account's emails and all my folders that I created and that housed my saved emails many of which were very important and precious to me, were completely gone."

An AOL spokesperson says the problem stems from AOL and product boss Brad Garlinghouse's efforts to upgrade a mail service that is crucial to AOL's turn-around.

"We are currently having issues with 1% of our mail accounts due to a software issue. The software issue is being addressed and we expect to have all accounts back to full service over the next 24-48 hours. Huge apologies to affected users and we are working hard to resolve the issue as soon as we possibly can."

Our tipster says AOL has been "scarce in their communications to us as to how this happened and where our emails are."

AOL is in a tough spot. It desperately needs its current users to stick with the service so that they'll keep going to AOL.com and clicking on AOL content after checking their email every day.

What's more, AOL's profits are still 80% dependent on 4 million people paying $244 million each quarter to use its email and services – even though those services are actually free.

AOL cannot afford to alienate those people. If you are one of those people, and, are tired of paying for a service you do not need, click here to see a step-by-step guide on how to cancel your subscription.