Lost folders and emails fter migration to Greenby

[#1]

Hi, on logging on to outlook a week ago, i had the 'welcome to Greenby' message (unexpectadly) and was informed my account had been migrated successfully. Unfortunately, that was not the case as i had numerous custom folders full of emails that were either missing entirely or the folder was shown but no content emails. Over the course of the week, i seem to have had a fair amount reappear very haphazardly, with some emails turning up in different folders from their original location and with the current days date showing (they were originally showing dates from 2023 when they were originally received and filed). One major issue is that a particular file with alot of emails in, dating from throughout 2023,24,and 2025 has vanished, although i had one email arrive today that i believe was in the same folder. Ive been in touch with Greenby numerous times, and the latest response is that theyve showed a screenshot of the folders that were present before the migration, but the large number of the missing  emails are not shown. No idea where to go to from here and unfortunately the missing files relate to a building project and possible court action, so particularly important. Any help would be much appreciated.

[#2]

I had a similar issue to you and posted it on the forum. Yesterday my folders were added back to my account, along with some folders I deleted a while ago. It's taken Greenby around two weeks to do this. Like you I had some important folders so I was getting a little anxious.

There are others in the same situation. 

Fingers crossed ou get yours back too.

[#3]

Thank you SLwells, hopefully that will be the case, but no luck so far, We had a local computer firm look at ourPC to see if it was something we had done or the folders were hidden somehow, but no luck thereI  have had an email (originally sent 2 years ago) that keeps arriving in the 'today' inbox several times over the last few weeks and a folder for legal docs that initially arrived empty, but has now filled up correctly. Unfortunately no sign of the files that had contained substantial evidence to  contest a £20k dispute. We are so p*ssed off with plusnet and greenby right now, but thank you for your info, its much appreciated .

[#4]

I too was unexpectedly migrated to Greenby. For days I had no emails at all. Plusnet told me to contact Greenby but the only way is to open a ticket which Greenby then ignored, sometimes for days. Eventually, they told me to delete my Outlook User ID and then rejoin. I did this and suddenly, new emails worked, but all my folders and contacts were missing. Greenby can't restore them and now says they must 'local' folders. But they never said anything about backing up my local folders. This is their fault but they won't even own the problem. 

[#5]

Hi @crtett. 

Are you able to check everything is selected when you log into webmail?

webmail > cog, and then make sure all selected.

Katie

[#6]

Your msg is not clear. If you mean Plusnet webmail, this is no longer available via the Plusnet website. If you mean the Greenby website, then I can see new emails since the migration and new folders I have created, but I have lost all past emails that I had moved to another folder plus my contacts.

I'm not sure what you mean by >cog

Sorry.

Chris

[#7]

Hi @crtett.

Thanks for getting back to me and sorry for not being clear.

webmail.plus.net should still work, can you please try logging in?

Speak soon, 

Katie

[#8]

@crtett 

Are you sure your folders are subscribed? When I was migrated to Greenby my folders became unsubscribed and hence seemed to vanish. I got them back by following this procedure Choose which IMAP account folders appear in Outlook - Microsoft Support.

[#9]

Perhaps I was fortunate in that Greenby located my files as they said it was a migration issue. That said I am not satisfied with their service. The e-mails keep going down, I am having problems with sending messages and most e-mails are going to junk. I am now migrating away from plus net. 

[#10]

Hi Katie,

Thanks for that address. It worked. Great! But I can only see new folders created since the migration. All my old ones are lost.

[#11]

Hi Star, thanks for the thought. But no, all my new folders are subscribed. And if I query a name of a lost folder, Outlook says nothing found.

Chris

[#12]

Hi, I haven’t heard from Greenby that the migration of my email account has started but all of my email folders have suddenly disappeared. I naively thought it was the latest iPhone ios upgrade until I checked this forum. Any advice on what I do as I have info I need in these folders ?? Thanks

[#13]

Hi @Tess3,

Do you know if your email migration has actually completed? If so, you should have received a 'Welcome to Greenby' email.

When you say your "folders have disappeared" what do you mean? That you cannot see them when you now log on directly to PN Webmail site via the old Squirrell mail interface? If so, after Greenby migration this is perfectly normal, the only folders left *visible* are the default set: Inbox (with all emails visible), Draft, Sent and Spam. All other locally created folders have been made invisible (but are still there really). This is also initially the case when you log on directly to your new Greenby webmail account.

Log on to the new Greenby email. In the top left hand corner you see your username/email address, next to this are three vertical dots ('action overflow'?). Tap on the three dots and see a menu, select Manage Folders. You should see all your PN webmail created folders - but you now need to click on Subscribe in the box against each in order to see them at normal login to the Greenby webmail system. Any such Subscribed Greenby mailboxes will now also reappear when logged in to the old PN webmail system.

But you mention "iPhone ios upgrade", so perhaps like many others you are not using webmail and are using a third party Email program on your device via POP or IMAP. Here I confess I cannot help - I have certainly used POP3 in the past, but not IMAP. What puzzles me is, if using say POP3 (don't know about IMAP), I would never have any locally created folders or mailboxes on the host system - beyond the basic default set, which includes Inbox. All extra folders would have been created locally on my PC and POP3 moved incoming emails from Inbox on the remote host to the local Inbox on my PC, then being moved locally to the relevant mailbox on my PC's Email program. (Some systems did keep a separate backup copy on the remote host of emails moved by POP3 from the remote email host Inbox to the local client Email program Inbox).

So I'm afraid I am a bit confused as to what exactly people are referring to by all these "missing mailboxes".

[#14]

If I had to guess it would be that IMAP is likely behind many (though not all) of the issues people are having with the transfer to Greenby email.

Internet Message Access Protocol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol

Message state information
"Through the use of flags defined in the IMAP4 protocol, clients can keep track of message state: for example, whether or not the message has been read, replied to, or deleted. These flags are stored on the server, so different clients accessing the same mailbox at different times can detect state changes made by other clients."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Message_Access_Protocol#Message_state_information

[#15]

Hi, thanks for the swift response, ref your points:-

1. I have heard nothing from Greenby at all.

2. My email folders show only Inbox & Bin and icloud Inbox, sent, bin & junk so none of my email filing folders are showing under my any Inbox.

3. I had thought the latest ios uograde on my iphone might have impacted email but as I didn't upgrade my ipad it was clear that the loss of my mailbox folders was unrelated. So that I think has nothing to do with the issue.

4. I did log into the old PN webmail ( not sure of reference to squirrel), the one where we could check folder sizes when they moaned about exceeding mailbox size. I can see the folders and check the size but I cant open any of them as I did previously.

5.My account set up is IMAP, incoming imap.plus.net and outgoing relay.plus.net, but this set up hasn't changed in the last 15 years so unless Greenby are doing something without telling me, I am at a loss to understand why I cant see or access any if my mailbox folders? Any next step guidance would be appreciated, thanks.