7000 unread emails in my inbox

[Robert_Thompson]

I recently replaced my iPad.  I had data on the old iPad professionally transferred.  Following this my email inbox showed over 7000 unread emails.  I have tried with limited success to delete most of them but still have over 2000.

This is unsatisfactory and I appear not to be alone in having difficulty removing them.

I have been advised to set up an iCloud email address and am inclined to do that.

[licquorice]

Not entirely sure why you think it is unacceptable, it is as a result of how you have dealt with your email previously.

[gg30340]

It would appear that over a long period of time you never deleted the emails from the BT servers.

This could be because of a couple of reasons being the way you set up your email app on your old iPad.

You had either set it up as an IMAP account and never deleted the email from inbox or you set it up as a POP3 account and never unticked if it was ticked or you ticked the box "Keep a copy of emails on the server" which means every email sent to you would be kept on the BT servers.

This would mean they were still on the servers and when you set up your new iPad's email app they would have been downloaded again.

None of the above is BT's fault. It is solely down to you or who ever set up your email clients.

All you can do is continue doing what you have been doing when you deleted the 5,000 emails in order to delete the 2,000 emails that you have left. 

You should ensure that the new iPad email app has been set up as an IMAP account or if a POP3 account that the emails are not being kept on the server or you will face the same problem if you have to set up an new email app in the future.

[WSH]

It happens.  In my younger days I once screwed up some mail forwarding rules at 7pm on a Friday night, just before I knocked off.

Monday morning, I had 11,400 bounce messages in my inbox with a new one coming in every 2 minutes.  I actually had to disable the account while I spent the morning getting shut of that lot.  I then had to email everybody inviting them to resend anything they’d sent over the weekend.  Embarrassing or what?