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Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

paulh
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Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

Webmail interface is incredibly slow, when we finally get signed in nothing displays, just get the message in linked image

 

emailerrorplusnetwebmail.png

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jab1
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

@paulh If it isn't broken, it is very poorly. I don't use it normally, but I had need to last week to report one email as spam, and it took me 5 or 6 attempts over a couple of hours to get past the message you have posted, and the other one which is regularly reported - and this was with only 4 emails (about 80kb total) on the server.

 

@Kelly - any chance of an investigation into this, it is cropping up quite a bit?

John
Townman
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

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.

 

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maranello
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

There is still a need to use Webmail to find out folder sizes. There are not many (if any) email clients that allow this. Is this possible using Squirrelmail?

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jab1
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

@Townman Thanks for that reminder, but I still think there is something 'wonky' with the webmail set-up, As I said, my failure was on an almost empty mailbox, set up in default mode - I probably log into webmail 3 times a year and have never seen this behaviour previously - maybe my infrequent use is skewing my view of the problem?

John
maranello
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

I'm seeing problems with both the Roundcube and Squirrelmail versions of Webmail. Neither will download and display Inbox, and trying to use the tools to check folder size also just times out eventually after a long period of nothing much happening.

I did manage to delete a number of messages using my Outlook client. This doesn't appear to have any problems after using the sort features. I sorted my Inbox in File size descending order, and found a quite a few 20Mb+ messages that i was able to delete. But i can't tell how much of an impact this has had on the total.

And, with regards deleted messsages, as in Steven King's Pet Semetary*, sometimes they come back!

 

*before anyone corrects my spelling, this is how it appears in both the book and film titles

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Townman
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

@maranello 

If one is focussed on the need to know folder sizes, then that might well be the case.  Having checked, neither Squirrel Mail nor mail2web provide reports on the size of the folder contents.  A number of email clients do, but by no means all of them.

With that said virtually all clients will report the number of items in a folder and many permit the size of items to be displayed and thereby the folder might be sorted on size, allowing big items to be picked off individually.  Also where facilitated using "permanent" delete (usually SHIFT+Delete) really makes it go away, less likely to be resurrected.

For many, the issue will not the the inbox, but the sent folder - something often over looked.  All those Christmas photographs of little Jimmy & Sally opening their presents from 'Santa' send to grannie and grandpa!

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Townman
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

@maranello 

... you've sent me off on an information hunt!!  I think that where a user is doing a tidy up and they are CERTAIN that items need to be deleted, there are some useful (non-default) options worth exploring in the Round Cube settings...

See Organizing your Email Messages — Roundcube Webmail Help 0.9 documentation

"In order to delete the message in first place, hold down the Shift key on the keyboard while clicking the Delete button or when pressing <Del>.

There’s a preference in Settings > Preferences > Server Settings where the default behaviour of message deletion can be changed."

Also looking at the round cube server settings there are some options worth exploring on how deletes are performed...

  1. Flag the message for deletion instead of delete
  2. Do not show deleted messages
  3. If moving messages to "Deleted Items" fails, permanently delete them
  4. Compact Inbox on logout

I think that (3) might address some performance issues and thereby address resurrection of deleted items.

(1) and (4) used together might also deliver improved usability - (1) avoids the move to deleted items whilst (4) should purge the items marked for deletion.

See Preferences — Roundcube Webmail Help 0.9 documentation

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Townman
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

Update...

I ran a test of the above settings - I set references 1, 3 and 4 abovementioned in round cube on a mailbox I also access via OUTLOOK 2016.

I then selected a number of emails listed in the inbox (in round cube [webmail]) using CTRL+click

I pressed the DELETE key - in RC they remained in the inbox and were greyed 'out'.

In OUTLOOK (after a sync refresh) the too were greyed out and struck through WITHIN in the inbox.

I then logged out of webmail.

A minute or two later, I refreshed OUTLOOK's view of the inbox folder - the items had gone and were not in the TRASH folder.  Therefore if you can trust yourself to be sure what you are deleting and can dispense with the TRASH folder safety net whilst performing a cull of the contents, the above might prove a proficient way of dealing with deleting large quantities of (or large) items.

NOTE: Early on Sunday mornings anything deleted (and placed in to the trash folder) more than 8 days ago will be purged by the server anyway, so the TRASH folder 'safety-net' only lasts (at the most) 13 days.

 

Hope the above will be found helpful to those struggling to prune mailbox contents.  If so, I will update the general guidance around the place.

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maranello
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

@Townman Thanks for the advice. I did receive an email from PN telling me the total email size, which covers all (both) mailboxes on the account. Hence the interest in this thread.

The problems with slow Webmail is something which i can recall as being present ever since it was introduced. I gave up on reporting/commenting here because nothing appeared to be achieved by complaining, and using tablet or mobile phone with email clients I had less need to use a Webmail service to access emails when away from my home computer. I guess that overall Webmail usage has generally declined and therefore not seen by PN as worth the effort to improve.

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Townman
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

I think it is recognised that there are issues - like many things in life, it’s a matter of where does one apply the limited resources. The cynical me somewhat suspects that BT are far too influential these days compared to those of the technically rich days this company was renound for.

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paulh
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

yes, ofc I mostly access my mail via phone or other (linux) client, nevertheless one does sometimes have to look at the "native" interface. I hadn't thought to use the "basic" option, however, so that's a useful reminder

[apart from the fact that that also throws errors, is woefully slow etc ]

Gandalf
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

Hey everybody,

We're aware there currently issues with webmail, namely that some people are getting the FETCH command error. This is logged internally (ref IMT-6694) and is under investigation.

Unfortunately I can't advise on a time-frame when the service will be back to normal though.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

Is there any news about the email problem please? Webmail has been very slow for most of the week and currently I can’t access it at all. My mailbox is virtually empty so it’s not a storage issue.

Townman
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Re: Is webmail broken? (2021-01-18)

Have you read the topic in its entirety?

What remedial measures have you applied?

Why not simply use a device based email application?  No one is forcing you to use the web browser interface.

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.