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Can't delete emails from Webmail

FIXED
Weystoner1
Grafter
Posts: 48
Thanks: 7
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Can't delete emails from Webmail

Through sheer inattention on my part I have managed to run my wife's and my IMAP email accounts over 1Gb in total, and we are in danger of having our emails archived by Plusnet.  I have been trying to delete the largest emails via webmail, but the pages won't load, with an error message 'server error, failed to send fetch command'.  In the past I have waited until gone midnight to delete emails, but even that hasn't worked this time.

As the Plusnet server is presumably timing out, is there any way of calling for, say, just a few emails at a time, or separately deleting attachments without displaying emails?

I would be very grateful for any advice; my wife and I are both heavily involved in a local homeless charity and loss of emails would be a real problem during this lockdown.

Many thanks, Dave

24 REPLIES 24
mindmagic
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

I have the same problem. I regularly delete old emails from my Inbox to stop it getting overfull, but at the moment I'm getting the same error message when I try to log in.

mindmagic
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Getting this error from Basic Webmail:

 

ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server.
Query: FETCH 18860:18870,18872:19360 (FLAGS UID RFC822.SIZE INTERNALDATE BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (Date To Cc From Subject X-Priority Importance Priority Content-Type)])

Mav
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22,369
Thanks: 4,725
Fixes: 514
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from Fibre Broadband to Email.

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

Weystoner1
Grafter
Posts: 48
Thanks: 7
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

I managed to delete some large emails from 'sent messages' this morning at 06.30, but I still can't delete from either inbox.  Still, at least we've dropped below the 1GHz limit so the threat of archiving should go away for a while.  I'll keep trying and report back.

Weystoner1
Grafter
Posts: 48
Thanks: 7
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎07-07-2016

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Fix

Up at 5 this morning and was able to open webmail, so I spent a couple of hours deleting around 3,000 emails.  Our combined mailbox size is now down to just over 300Mb.  Will we delete regularly from now on, like we probably should? Well, you never know.

Thanks, Dave

mindmagic
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

I'm still unable to get into webmail. Fetch error on full webmail. Same error message in basic webmail:

 

ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server.
Query: FETCH 18870,18872:19370 (FLAGS UID RFC822.SIZE INTERNALDATE BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (Date To Cc From Subject X-Priority Importance Priority Content-Type)])

 

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,919
Thanks: 9,536
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Slow webmail

There is a known gremlin in the third party Round Cube webmail program which can cause delays in listing emails - see the end user mitigation post at the top of the Email board here. It somewhat appears that any sorting or filtering on a large mailbox cripples the performance of RC webmail, where as the 'basic' webmail program (Squirrel Mail) is not affected. Using Squirrel Mail can be an effective way of accessing a mail box which is running slow with RC.

There is no necessity to restrict your access to your Plusnet email via the Plusnet Webmail interface. Virtually every IT device comes with an in-built email program which can be configured to access your Plusnet email service. See the setting up an email client guide.

Some have found logging into their mailbox using this third party webmail client - https://mail2web.com helpful in clearing out clutter from their mailboxes.

 

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

mindmagic
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Thanks. I pick up my emails using Gmail, but it's IMAP and leaves copies on the Plusnet servers, so I need to go in periodically to clear out old emails. 

I've just downloaded my emails into Thunderbird, and that seems to have cleared the problem, as I can now get into basic webmail, which is all i need.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,919
Thanks: 9,536
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Through the Gmail IMAP client, it ought to be possible for you to archive / delete emails there - possibly use a Gmail folder to save your Plusnet emails.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

mindmagic
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

And it's gone again. Can't get back into webmail. I have sent a message to support on Twitter (chat is unavailable). If that doesn't work I'll raise my own thread in community.

 

mindmagic
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

Deleted.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,919
Thanks: 9,536
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

@Mav 

Can you please split mindmagic's "me too" posts off to their own topic please.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

vorlon99
Dabbler
Posts: 17
Registered: ‎21-11-2020

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

i get the same thing, been trying for a week now

Duxman
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎26-11-2020

Re: Can't delete emails from Webmail

I too use IMAP (across a number of devices) for valid reasons and can't use POP3. I got the Plusnet warning my mailbox capacity was over 800Mb. So needed to delete mail off the server and the only way is via Plusnet Webmail. Same as other users, kept getting server Fetch and Select errors. Tried for 2 hours, no luck. Hadn't managed to bring up any mail. So, I picked up a spare device (iPad) and set it up with my Plusnet email account as POP3 and chose the advanced option to 'delete from server' with option 'when removed from inbox'. Then opened the iPad mail client and waited for all my mail to download to it's new inbox.  When complete, I began the long job of marking up emails and sending them to the Bin. Long time later I'd deleted over 2000 emails. Going back to Plusnet Webmail, it now loads a lot more quickly and I can see the few remaining emails, showing me I'd cleaned the server side. Went back to the iPad and removed that mail account (not needed any more). Only job now I guess is to delete the old emails from each of my other devices (as the procedure earlier only deleted them from the server and that one iPad POP3 device). Still a lot better off now - must remember in future to housekeep the server with Webmail more often!