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Re: E-mails Disappeared

TrevorP
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Registered: ‎31-08-2020

Re: E-mails Disappeared

Hi,

I have just returned from holiday.  During this time I was browsing some email on my phone, but not very active.  On arriving home, I logged in (Outlook on Mac user) and all of my inbox prior to Friday and some of my folder structures seem to have vanished.  I've tried synchronising but to no avail.  Phone inbox gone the same way.

I'm sure I've made no conscious activity to cause this. 

Sent box seems intact.  

This is very concerning as I seem to have lost many quite important messages. 

All a bit worrying.

Trevor

7 REPLIES 7
TrevorP
Hooked
Posts: 6
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Registered: ‎31-08-2020

Re: E-mails Disappeared

hi,

 

An update to the original post.  I note the Plusnet Chatline is still in operable and I'm unable to easily join a cal queue.  However, I have restored my Outlook profile from a previous backup - sadly this backup is incomplete as of course it was operating while I was away.  It rebuilt my inbox and some sub folders of my inbox.  However, as soon as I synched with the server all 3000+ mails disappeared again.  I have since re-restored it but I have not used my phone nor have I worked on line. 

I have saved my mails locally, and I have modified my file structure to move sub folders away from the inbox. I'm still missing any incoming mails between 18 August and 29 August.   I have made no changes to my settings.  I have not received any FUP mails.  So I am very concerned that this behaviour can be experienced in a fairly arbitrary and unpredictable way. I'm concerned that if I go online again it'll revert and I'll lose all my mail again. 

dvorak
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Re: E-mails Disappeared


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Townman
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: E-mails Disappeared

Hi @TrevorP 

A warm welcome to the forums.  This should help...

Email archiving

Plusnet has two email content archiving 'events'

  1. Exceeding the Fair Usage Policy (FUP): This is invoked when the sum of the contents of all of your email boxes exceeds the 1GB FUP allowance. Users will have received warning notices for several weeks, having exceeded 75% of the FUP. After 2 warnings of having exceeded 100% of the FUP, mailboxes are archived to bring the FUP utilisation down below 100%. The act of archiving emails is recorded in the user's ticket history - see the PN tickets link below - notification emails are sent to the contact email address, as specified by the user, under their contact preferences in the account details - it is imperative that this email address is monitored
  2. Mailbox not accessed for a while: After a period of not accessing a mailbox (it not being logged into) the contents are archived. An email is sent to that mailbox advising of the archiving action, after it has been archived. No record of the action is recorded in the ticket history

Archives are retained for 30 days. When making a request to unarchive emails, it is very helpful to inform staff which of the above archives appears to have been performed - it stops them looking for non-existent tickets! Try to raise a ticket here.  If that does not work, please post back here.

 

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.

TrevorP
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Registered: ‎31-08-2020

Re: E-mails Disappeared

Hi Townman,

Thank you for responding.  I am (now) aware of the FUP and I have seen the material you have re-posted in reply to me (I've seen it in other threads).  It is entirely possible I have (had) exceeded this limit and that's just careless on my part.  I'll be more careful in future.

However ....

I cannot find ANY FUP email or other warning.  If it's going to some other inbox (as far as I am aware I have only one) then I need to know that.  If it isn't, then I think Plusnet should maybe do some checking. I'd appreciate knowing where any warning mail is going.

Currently, I have 2 issues and one further question:  my last backup was 18 August.  My email arbitrarily disappeared around last Saturday (when I logged in from my desktop) , but there is material in my inbox timed at Friday (28th) afternoon.  This makes me suspect that maybe sometime of Friday is when this clear out event occurred, apparently unannounced.  So I'm missing whatever happened between 18th and 28th.  Of course backups won't function while I'm away .. it would be good if I could recover that material, but I'm not holding my breath ... 

Issue #2 is once I've restored all this and tidied everything up. as soon as I go on line again I fear the risk of all my work being undone, so right now I'm not enabling Outlook to synch. 

I'd like a confirmation that this *was* due to an FUP 'event' if that's possible to know. 

Anyway, much appreciate your knowledge and taking the time to respond. 

 

best,

Trevor

TrevorP
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Registered: ‎31-08-2020

Re: E-mails Disappeared

Hi Townman,

Note to self - read *all* the content before reply .... 

My apologies, I've now found the warnings in the PN view.  I don't know why I did not see them - it seems strange that it appears as a "question" and didn't come into my default mailbox.

I think the way forward is to request a restore and then I'll rebuild the inbox and file structure with an archive folder. 

thanks,

Trevor

Townman
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Re: E-mails Disappeared

Hi Trevor,

------------------------

Note to self - read *all* the content before reply .... 

------------------------

😆

It might have been a matter of which version of my 'stock' reply you have read elsewhere.  As I review comments made on common topics, the 'stock' reply text gets modified to make details clearer.  You are not the first (and I doubt you will be the last) to claim that the notification email was not sent (received).  Such concerns have been discussed with Plusnet engineering who advised that this is simply not possible and that there are system interlocks which prevent FUP archiving in the absence of notification.  It became apparent that in some circumstances the user was not monitoring their nominated email address ... hence the evolving changes to my 'stock' response made quite recently.

 

"Question" - I would suspect that is an aberration of the creative use of a system originally created for a different purpose.  As far as I can tell (as a user) there are two types of entry in tickets...

  1. A question - an entry which 'lives' beyond the initial creation, can be replied to and dies after 14 days of no user response
  2. A service notice - an entry which simply reports an event and has no continued life there after

In the past I have responded to FUP archive "question" tickets to request the restore.

As for which mail box the ticket notice (raised for any reason) goes to, they will always go to the email address specified in the user contact email address as specified in the user preference settings.  This might or might not the the default mailbox.  One real irritation (for which there is no ready mitigation) is that the notification of non-use archiving only goes to the not used email address ... so might never be seen soon enough to facilitate a restore.

I hope that the contribution (and link to the ticketing system) gets you the further assistance you require.  If not, please respond here ... and I will flag this to the SU watch list on email restore matters.

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.

TrevorP
Hooked
Posts: 6
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎31-08-2020

Re: E-mails Disappeared

Hi Townman,

Thanks for response.   I've phoned the call centre and my mail box will be restored tomorrow, although the process may not be completely smooth, but that's a small inconvenience ...  Call centre guy [CSA Removed] helpful and patient so scored him a '10' on the follow up survey.  You also warrant a '10' too. 🙂

It is possible the FUP warning (there were two) went to a redundant mailbox, which I have now changed.  Quite why the 'view my bill' goes to my default mailbox and the FUP 'question' (ticket) goes elsewhere is something of a mystery.  We'll see what happens in the future. 

Will spend some time tomorrow adjusting mail settings and archiving again, but now hope this issue closed.  Thanks for your kind help. 

Trevor

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.