This topic

IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

GD_ABZ — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:09:13 GMT

I recently switched from a POP email set-up (where I downloaded emails to my local Outlook App - but left the original messages on the Server....I used to have messages back to 2012!).

However, I persuaded my wife to switch to an IMAP set up around 36 months ago - so that she could sort/manage/delete emails on her iPad and on all her other devices simultaneously (iPad, Laptop and Office Desktop).

I kept my Laptop on POP3....so I could delete all the Junk from MY In-Box - without deleting "her" stuff on the BT-Server...before my wife had had the opportunity to shop from it!

Since the new BT email (in September?) we lost all the old emails (going back to 2012!) from the BT Server - and my wife swears she did not “sort/manage/delete” them.....it seemed like it was deleting/auto-archiving everything in the In-box that was older than about 30 days? (and as we were on vacation in September - we lost a lot of unread/un-actioned emails).

As I still had my POP3 set up, I had much of the In-box on my Laptop (even going back to 2012)!) apart from the Junk I had deleted....so we put the emails back up onto the IMAP BT-server In-box....and they stayed there through October/early November - and my wife was able to carry on managing/sorting emails.

That was until c.10th November....when again the BT-Server In-box seemed to delete emails older that the 10th October........IS THE NEW "IMPROVED" BT EMAIL SYSTEM AUTO-ARCHIVING/DELETING THE IN-BOX IF IT'S OLDER THAN 30 DAYS??

And because it's IMAP, it's deleted them from my Wife's local in-box too! That's completely unacceptable - and it it's certainly not long enough - if BT needs to auto-archive the in-box it should tell Users and give us at least 6 months (so we can switch back to POP3!).

Has anybody else encountered this issue?

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

licquorice — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:25:33 GMT

Aside from the bizarre notion of sharing an email address, I suspect one or other of your devices are set up to auto archive or delete mail after a period of time. It isn't a function of BT mail.

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

GD_ABZ — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:39:47 GMT

not sure how "bizarre" the idea of a shared Household account really is - but thanks I'll have a check with the IMAP devices (assume my POP3 set-up wouldn't change anything on the server)

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

GD_ABZ — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:51:28 GMT

Well I’ve checked the IMAP devices: Desktop (Oulook), iPhone and IPad (Mail App) - and I can’t see anything in the auto-archiving options….i did change a tickbox in Outlook to make auto-archive to be controlled by each folders’ individual settings……but in any event none seemed to be set to a 30 day archive window.

I’ll keep an eye on it for next month - but would still welcome any other feedback or others’ similar experience if you’ve encountered it?

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

licquorice — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 08:06:17 GMT

Did you check the POP3 settings to ensure there was no time limit for messages to remain on the server?

Outlook2010 certainly has the option to delete messages from the server after a configurable number of days, I would imagine other clients also have the same option.

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

gg30340 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 13:53:36 GMT

@licquorice wrote:

Outlook2010 certainly has the option to delete messages from the server after a configurable number of days, I would imagine other clients also have the same option.

Thunderbird also has that option.

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

licquorice — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 13:57:38 GMT

Thought it probably would have but couldn't be bothered to create a test POP3 account to try it.

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

GD_ABZ — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 15:07:27 GMT

Thanks - I will double check all my POP3 devices (though I have been using exclusively POP3 accounts since around 2005 up until about 3 years ago, when I switched my wife over to IMAP, and didn’t have any auto-server delete issues then - but will double check whether my new iPad last year snuck something in)…….this spate of issues seemed to start back in September- around when BT “improved” their email service….hence my suspicion!

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

licquorice — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 15:20:28 GMT

The 'improvement' was only to the web interface.

Re: IMAP In-Box Deleting Incoming Messages Older than 1 month

GD_ABZ — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 07:23:20 GMT

Ok - think I found a setting on my IPhone where it set my POP3 account to move items from the Server after 14 daus(?!!!) so I’ve set that back to never and I’ll see how I get on……dunno why it got set that way a why I only intermittently noticed an issue…..perhaps it only runs tat script when I access that (household) account on my iPhone (less often?) - I’ll see how it goes- thanks