Inbox folder has dissapeared in IMAP

David21 · ‎08-07-2018

I wonder if anyone can help? Two days ago my Outlook inbox started showing as empty. It connects to Plusnet by IMAP. My other folders are fine (Sent/drafts/archive etc) but not Inbox. After much digging I have found it is no longer seen as a folder by Outlook and therefore is not subscribed for synchronising. It doesn't appear on the folder list in Outlook so I cannot re-subscribe to it.

I don't know why it has changed but this seems likely to be the cause of the problem.

The Inbox folder shows fine in Webmail and has my emails in it. It has the same greyed out tick box for subscription as my other folders which do work.

I have added the Root Folder Path in Outlook as INBOX, although this has never been set previously, but it hasn't helped.

I am stumped and the help desk people have not been able to help.

Any suggestions?

David

Townman · ‎22-08-2007

Hello David,

A warm welcome to the forums.

When you say "Outlook" which product do you mean? There are a number of products which use that label ... and they are far from being the same beasts!

If OUTLOOK 2016 you might try refreshing the IMAP folder subscriptions (right click on the account in the left hand navigation bar.

You said that you altered the root folder - you could try clearing that again. I have seen a good deal of funny stuff in this space, it is typically something to do with IMAP sync failures - in which case lengthening the server time out period could be beneficial.

In another browser tab, login into the Plusnet user portal BEFORE clicking the fault & ticket links

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.

If this post helped, please click the Thumbs Up and if it fixed your issue, please click the This fixed my problem green button below.

David21 · ‎08-07-2018

I have been trying all sorts of things, changing the setting suggested, setting up Outlook on another laptop, comparing settings with my wife's account - which works fine.

Then quite out of the blue I came back to my laptop and it had synchronised all the folders. Bizarre. Some of the settings that look wrong still look wrong (eg the Inbox is still not shown on the laptop as subscribed) but it all seems to be working again.

So just as randomly as it stopped, about a week later it started again.

I did notice I had lost some setting but it is all back now.

So thank you Townman for you suggestions and interest. Fingers crossed it keeps working.