This topic

Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

SiGod — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:49:44 GMT

I use webmail on multiple computers, including my work laptop - it is not possible to install or use mail client apps such as Thunderbird. I am very reliant on the search function, sometimes using it to find messages I sent 5-10 years ago.

Until recently it worked fairly well, it took a long time to return results but the results were there.

Since Apr/May 2026 the search function stopped working completely. It does not even give results for messages received on the same day. After exactly 11 seconds the search fails and returns an error:

This search request took longer than expected and timed out.

Please fix the search function.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Rach_H — Tue, 19 May 2026 13:04:43 GMT

Hi @SiGod,

Welcome to the Community!

I've raised this with out team for you now, and I'll let you know what they come back with.

Rach

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Brian21 — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:59:58 GMT

Is there an answer yet to this problem of searching and getting an error message ("took too long and timed out")

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Jonathankee — Fri, 29 May 2026 17:14:45 GMT

Is there an answer to this problem please

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

User888 — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:57:16 GMT

Good afternoon Rach

Are you able to provide an update to this ongoing issue please?

Many thanks

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Leanne_T — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 07:20:59 GMT

Hi @SiGod @Brian21 @Jonathankee @User888

This has been raised to our email support team for investigation.

As soon as we have an update we will let you all know.

Leanne.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Kimberley — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:54:44 GMT

I have been having the same error response. I am reliant on search function for some documents that have beens sent to me , could you please give us an update on when it is going to be available as soon as possible.

Many thanks

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Leanne_T — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 10:08:27 GMT

Hi @Kimberley

Thanks for letting us know.

Once we have more information we will update you all.

Leanne.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Leanne_T — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:12:07 GMT

Morning everyone.

The team have come back to us now and asked if you can try again today and let us know how you get on?

They have also recommended if you have a large email inbox, to delete/unsubscribe from emails you don't need to make sure the email platform has no timing or performance issues which may happen with larger inboxes.

Leanne.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

SiGod — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:32:09 GMT

I have just logged-out and logged-in again to my BT webmail account.

Exactly same behaviour as before. Search fails after exactly 11 seconds.

Same result regardless of search string - a company or product name, order ref, person's name, or email address.

The search function fails every time on my Inbox, which has the bulk of my messages, but search works fine in my Sent Items folder which has far fewer items.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

gg30340 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:42:12 GMT

@SiGod

Just for information:-

If you are using your Inbox as a storage folder I would suggest that you would be safer to make new named folders and file your emails into the relevant folders.

The Inbox is a dynamic folder and is constantly changing with new emails arriving and deleted emails departing plus if you have a read through the forum you will find posts where uses have found that for some inexplicable reason contents of the Inbox have been deleted and once this happened they have not be able to be recovered.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

SiGod — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:01:52 GMT

Thanks for the advice @gg30340

Contents of the inbox being deleted without reason and without possiblity of restoring? That sounds like a really serious problem to me, especially for a paid-for premium email service!!

On your advice, I have moved two years worth of emails from my inbox into a subfolder of "My Folders" - over 14,000 messages.

Freeing-up this number of items has not solved the problem. I still get the same time-outs searching my inbox. Considering the search function worked fine on my inbox until fairly recently, I'm surprised that freeing-up 14,000 items was not compensation enough.

I shall continue to move blocks of messages over and out of my inbox, into archives of 5 or 10 years of messages, in the hope that the inbox will reach a size that can be searched again. But it's a very jerky time and very time-consuming process!

I am sure the search timeout must have been reduced on this web application. 11 seconds every time seems like a very specific threshold. Earlier this year, when the search funcion worked fine, yes the search results did take some time to appear (maybe 20-30 seconds, from memory) but they did appear and very rarely timed-out.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

gg30340 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:19:35 GMT

My advice was not given to help the search problem that you are having. It was to hopefully avoid any problems that I described.

As regards the lost email problem, there were indications from the BTMail Team that the emails deletion was triggered by Apple devices that the users has set up their BTMail account on but there was not a fix regarding what was causing it. No doubt because Apple blamed BT and BT blamed Apple.

I do not have any folders with as many emails as you have but I have just carried out a search on a folder containing about 300 emails dating back to 2017 and it completed the search in about 2 seconds.

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

User888 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:17:33 GMT

Please be advised that the issue is still outstanding.

Kind regards

Re: Webmail Search fails after 11 seconds timeout

Leanne_T — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 07:12:22 GMT

Hi @SiGod @User888

I have let the team know this is still happening and will get back to you when we get more information.

Leanne.