No emails for over a month

[#1]

Hello

I am no longer getting emails addressed to my @freenetname.co.uk. I typically get them through either Outlook or the Mail app on my Mac. I have logged into the plusnet webmail but it shows no messages at all, and just hangs when I try to switch to sent items for instance. This happens in both Chrome and Safari. 

I used to have a domain registered with madasafish which was then migrated to plusnet so emails sent to my domain name @flannelchick.co.uk get forwarded to the @freenetname.co.uk account. I don't know if something has changed with the domain settings, or with the email account. 

I have browsed the forums looking for a similar issue but can't see anything specifically about email and domain hosting! 

Thanks

Trace

[#2]

@riggott 

I assume you have tried both the "advanced webmail" and "basic webmail".

On a Plusnet account bot seem OK for me.

If your domain has recently expired that might be related to the emails not working although I can't see why your @freenetname emails won't work.

It may be a sign to move email provider.

Personally I would use Microsoft's Outlook.com service in preference to other (free) providers (particularly if you have the Microsoft Office version of Outlook). This is because the way it interacts with the local email client (using Microsoft Exchange) seems to me to work better than IMAP.

You will probably also have an iCloud address with Apple products.

[#3]

If your domain has recently expired that might be related to the emails not working although I can't see why 

That was my thought but Whois shows the domain renewed in May this year

[#4]

Hi @riggott 

Your e-mail account only has a 250MB allowance so it might be that you've hit this which will stop e-mails coming through.

Can you try deleting any old or unneeded e-mails then sending a test e-mail to yourself to see if that comes through 

[#5]

Thanks, I'm not sure how to delete emails from the server when I can't get into webmail - well I can but the inbox displays nothing. On my email clients all the messages are downloaded from the server so deleting them from there makes no difference.


I historically have a bunch of email addresses using @flannelchick.co.uk so ideally I'd just like to get those forwarded to any other webmail like gmail or outlook.com but I don't know if that's possible? Do I need to configure something on the domain or get that hosted somewhere else? As I can tell I don't really know what I'm doing re: the domain. I bought it 24 years ago and just use it for email addresses!

[#6]

@riggott 

If the email client uses POP then it will (or could) take emails from the server.

The more common method of interaction with a mail client is IMAP. This takes a copy of mail but (usually) leaves a copy on the server.

In Outlook try deleting some emails then "send and receive". This may make some space in your "online" mailbox.

I've never used Plusnet domain hosting and it may be more limited than other typical services, but a couple of domain hosts I have give a "control panel" where you can chose where mail@domain.co.uk goes.

Often you can chose different forwards for mail1@ mail2@ etc.

[#7]

@markhawkin

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that.

As a side note, any idea how I manage my domain through plusnet? To be fair I haven't actually browsed the forums for that question yet.

[#8]

In Outlook right click on the whole account (the line above Inbox) and then click on "folder size".

This is the local folder but will help with the likelyhood that you have exceeded the mailbox size with Plusnet.

It's possible to export mailboxes to a local file with Outlook and given your problems this might be wise.

[#9]

I don't have a domain with Plusnet so I can offer limited help there.

Is it a link on your main account page?

I've got "webmail" there and I suspect you might find "domain" as well.

[#10]

I've never actually logged into my main account, only into webmail directly. I'll have a look into that as well, thanks so much!

[#11]

@markhawkin I have deleted loads of messages, but I don't have Outlook, it's the Mail app on my Mac which is configured for POP3. I have also gone into the settings on Mail and tried to get it to remove any downloaded messages 

I logged into webmail again https://webmail.plus.net/ and see a banner stating "no messages found in this mailbox"

I can send messages but not receive and this is the case on the iMac, the MacBook and my phone so I assume it can't be the local settings. 

[#12 · Accepted solution]

@riggott 

It's a bit late now, but with multiple devices POP3 isn't ideal.

What it does (by default) is that the first device to see the message downloads it and deletes it from the server (thus the other devices don't get it to download).

You can work round this by unticking "remove from the server" or similar but IMAP or Exchange work better with multiple devices. 

As far as the original problem, it's a mystery. The mailbox doesn't seem full.

As you have Apple Macs you will have an iCloud email address I guess.

What happens when you send from that iCloud address to your Plusnet hosted address. Do you get a bounce message ? If so what does it say?

[#13]

I won't post any more replies tonight after this one, but when I send from my iCloud address, it just goes, no bounce back. 

Back to PlusNet webmail where I looked in the settings for my folders and the inbox was showing 0 messages and 0 size on the folder information however since I sent the iCloud test, it is now showing 3 messages, and they have come through on my Mail app as well!

I haven't changed anything so I have no clue why emails are now coming in. 

Thanks so much for your advice and help, very much appreciated! Have a great weekend

[#14]

@riggott Glad it's fixed and no further updates are needed.

For completeness and others who come accross this thread some points to note.

1) Using POP and collecting the emails from a client that is set to delete the server copy will leave the webmail view with no emails after the POP session has run. People often use this setup with phones set to not delete from the server. With multiple devices. All things being equal, IMAP is better to use as all devices have the same view of the emails (but see 2).

2) The Plusnet mailbox is (by the standards of other free services e.g. Hotmail, GMail), very small so relatively easily gets full. When full it won't take any further mails.