Emails not showing up in inbox

[#1]

I'm hoping that you wonderful people can help me resolve a problem I've been asked to help with.

A friend of a friend has had for many years a madasafish email address that has ended up with plusnet that has suddenly stopped working. Since 20/2/2025 (last email showing) no new emails are showing in the inbox whether accessed by a variety of email clients or via webmail. (Mailbox size is below 100Mb)

All other email accounts across a variety of devices are working fine, just not the main one. I've tried sending messages from the webmail which seem to simultaneously work and fail - giving "error occurred" & "sent successfully" messages (screenshot attached) - the emails arrive but do not show in the sent folder under webmail.

There's nowhere I can log into that allows me to reset the account/password, any ideas?

Thanks for any help.

[#2]

@Anric   Welcome to the Plusnet Community Fora.

It sounds iike the mail box is full. If you do a search for similar instances on this board, you should find more advice on how to check/delete stored messahes. Alternarively, wait for a knowledgeable community member to come along and offer assistance.

[#3]

Thanks for the welcome.

i also thought that it might be a full inbox, so checked & the total of the folders is currently about 100Mb & AIUI the limit is 250Mb?

[#4]

@Anric I think, but could be wrong, that the MAAF limit is 100Mb.

[#5]

That would certainly affect matters! (Double checked & it’s about 123Mb).

Any idea where I would find the definitive answer on this? As a follow up would this limit have not been enforced before, as there were many more & it was working fine.

[#6]

Sorry, I don't know much about the legacy accounts - maybe @MisterW or @Townman could help here?

However, one comment I would make - and this does not just apply in this case, but to all those who use webmail - it is essential to keep the storage as low as possible to avoid this situation occurring. Only keep really essential messages in there, and regularly clean out the deleted messages.

[#7]

I understand the MAAF limit is 250MB , see this thread https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/email-access-for-freenetname-madasafish/td-p/1995530

[#8]

Ah, OK @MisterW - I stand corrected. So this is not a mailbox limit problem, but something else.

[#9]

Thanks again, currently following up your suggestion re inbox size for an answer.

The inbox itself is 2.3Mb, it’s the storage folders that increase the size. Always fun how different providers have different T&C’s, one of mine has a limit on inbox size (which I think is about a Gb, ) but a different limit on message storage - not useful in this case but interesting to muse over.

[#10]

Reading through the initial post and the screenshot , it does seem to be a mailbox limit problem.

The screenshot would indicate that the message is accepted by the server and sent,  but there's insufficient space to put a copy in the 'sent' folder.

@Anric have you included the sent folder in estimating the total space used ?

Is the email client subscribed to ALL folders ?  Some email clients use different names for 'trash' and 'sent' folders, so there may be a hidden one lurking somewhere taking up space. Re-subscribing to all folders MAY cause that to show up.

[#11]

I seem to remember, back in my very early days, seeing this on my system, but I honestly can't remember any details from that long ago.

@Anric Is the user with the problem using webmail, or a proper mail client?

[#12]

Hi, thanks for joining in.

i agree that it seems like a limit problem, why I first suggested to prune as many mails as possible to my new friend 😀.

The sent folder (261kb) has been included in the total as this has been reduced as well.

 I’ve not been using a client to work on this, but directly in the webmail account on the basis that fixing the problem there should fix it everywhere, or am working under a misapprehension?

[#13]

Reply to @jab1 both webmail & client - Samsung email on mobile, Outlook Classic & Mailspring.

[#14]

@MisterW has covered all angles on this.

Given the error is reported in Webmail, the mailbox is indeed full, which does not though inhibit sending emails, they just do not get stored. Hidden folders are invariably the culprit … which given the reference to multiple email clients seems like a high probability of there being duplicate sent & trash folders.

[#15]

Fixing it in webmail is a good place to start, but make sure webmail is displaying all of the folders - see manage folders bottom left.

Also right click on the folders and compact them.

Note after three clicks in the left panel you’ll need to refresh the page. There’s a bug in the user interface.