Care4free.net Webmail - emails disappeared

[#1]

Hi there,

I have 2 problems.

1. Webmail - most of my emails in the inbox seem to have disappeared. 
All I can see is the last recent email received listed as received Monday 29th at 5.58. Further emails listed then jump to being from 2006, 2003 and 2014.

Years and years of emails have disappeared and I need some help restoring the inbox to the last time it was ok on Sunday 28th May.

2. Please can you confirm the best settings to use to pull email to a local email client (Outlook).
POP or IMAP and what are the settings for customers on care4free emails?

Thanks.

F

[#2]

The definition of "best" is debatable.

For me, "best" is that which leaves me in control and avoids confusion.  Some think POP3 is "best" for what you describe because they think that they do not need to think about how it works ... or do anything.

Invariably accessing the same mailbox from more than one client AND using POP3 bring nothing but utter confusion.  POP3 only looks at the INBOX, it does not look at other folders on the sever, notably the SENT ITEMS folder.

"Best" is where YOU take control of your email house keeping - 

• Use only IMAP - that maintains a consistent view of your on-line email across all clients
• Do some house keeping regularly - get rid of the garbage - especially those emails sent to share documents and photos (better still share via cloud storage)
• Establish local archiving and archive (remove from the server) those emails you really-really must keep

[#3]

@Townman 

I work in tech so totally understand your points about 'best to use' and take them onboard.

However - can I ask that you address the other parts of my request for support please?

1. Webmail - most of my emails in the inbox seem to have disappeared. 
All I can see is the last recent email received listed as received Monday 29th at 5.58. Further emails listed then jump to being from 2006, 2003 and 2014.

Years and years of emails have disappeared and I need some help restoring the inbox to the last time it was ok on Sunday 28th May.

How can I fix this? What's going on? I can see multiple people reporting similar.

2.  Please can you confirm the best settings to use to pull email to a local email client (Outlook).
POP or IMAP and what are the settings for customers on care4free emails?

You discussed that imap is best to use when pushing and pulling emails for the same account from multiple devices. Noted. Please confirm the imap settings I should use with a carefree email account.

[#4]

Hi @firestartr 

As a user like yourself, I am not in a position to deliver support in the shape which you seek.  All I can do is share knowledge which might help another user to help themselves.

Your description of the webmail listing hints at issues with mailbox content sorting sequences.  Round Cube can make a hash of this.  You might try...

1. Change the sort sequence in webmail (there is a grid icon on the left of the columns title bar) - make sure that is set to none
2. Try using the Squirrel Mail (basic webmail) client and see if that displays the contents differently

I would always recommend only using IMAP and then you need to implement house keeping to move emails in to local Outlook storage files.

Server settings can be found in the threads at the top of the mail forum board.

EDIT: The full list of settings for Care4free seem to have vanished - on those for SMTP are readily available.  Reading between the lines this brand appears to use a common server name for all functionality...

• Server: mail.care4free.net
• IMAP: Port 143 (no encryption) or Port 993 with TLS/SSL
• SMTP: Port 587 with or without encryption (STARTTLS)

If they do not work - please come back.

[#5]

@Townman apologies, at first glance I didn't realise you weren't Plusnet support.

Thanks so much for trying to help.

[#6]

@Gandalf please can you or one of your team help with this? 

1. Webmail - most of my emails in the inbox seem to have disappeared. 
All I can see is the last recent email received listed as received Monday 29th at 5.58. Further emails listed then jump to being from 2006, 2003 and 2014.

Years and years of emails have disappeared and I need some help restoring the inbox to the last time it was ok on Sunday 28th May.

2. Please can you confirm the best settings to use to pull email to a local email client (Outlook).
POP or IMAP and what are the settings for customers on care4free emails?

Thanks in advance.

[#7]

@firestartr 

Have you tried the advice I offered?

@Gandalf is no longer formally part of this support space.

[#8]

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@firestartr wrote:

1. Webmail - most of my emails in the inbox seem to have disappeared. 
All I can see is the last recent email received listed as received Monday 29th at 5.58. Further emails listed then jump to being from 2006, 2003 and 2014.

Years and years of emails have disappeared and I need some help restoring the inbox to the last time it was ok on Sunday 28th May.

---

We don't archive mail on Madasafish/Care4Free accounts, so I'd second the above advice, try using Basic Webmail (SquirrelMail) here and/or changing the sort sequence by following the steps in the post here.

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@firestartr wrote:

2. Please can you confirm the best settings to use to pull email to a local email client (Outlook).
POP or IMAP and what are the settings for customers on care4free emails?

---

Should be able to use the Plusnet email server settings provided here as they're the best ones.

[#9]

Thanks will try this out and let you know if it works and fixes my problem @anoushmortazavi1 

[#10]

The correct tag for Anoush is @Gandalf .

[#11]

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@firestartr wrote:

Thanks will try this out and let you know if it works and fixes my problem

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No problem, let us know how you get on. 

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@firestartr wrote:

@anoushmortazavi1 

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Now that is a (user)name I haven't heard in a long time. 

Think it's a duplicate profile which I created by accident on the old forums.