Webmail: Deleted Items contains 53000 items, server error when trying to empty

[#1]

My Mum's email client was not deleting mails from the server, so after 5 years her inbox contained 10,000 items. Plusnet contacted her and asked her to delete some of the emails, she asked me to do it as she doesn't know how.

I logged in to her webmail and tried to delete the inbox items, but got a server error and somehow ended up with 10,000 items in inbox and 10,000 items in the deleted folder. I tried a few more times but the same thing happened. Eventually after trying everything else I had to delete all 10,000 items one page (40 items) at a time, which took quite a while.

Now we have an almost empty inbox, but have somehow ended up with 53,000 items in the deleted folder. When I try to empty the deleted folder it tries for a while then gives an error, and all the items are still there.Same thing happens when we log out of webmail.

If Plusnet were unhappy with 10,000 emails I guess they will be livid about 53,000 does anyone know how I can empty the deleted folder?

Thanks

[#2]

Changing to POP3 from IMAP would prevent this from happening in the future.

[#3]

@asm46598 Trying to do this yourself using webmail or an email program on your PC is likely to take lots of time, cause endless frustration and possibly lack of success. Lots of mailbox compressing would be needed after deleting a small number of messages (assuming you got the chance). 

I suggest contacting Customer Services via phone or chat and ask them to raise a ticket on your mum's account assigned to the mail team to get this done. What would take you hours should take them only a few minutes.

[#4]

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@Gel wrote:
Changing to POP3 from IMAP would prevent this from happening in the future.

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That's not so much as a fix as a completely different solution having markedly different operating characteristics.

It moves the storage of all email away from the server and places it on the PC.  Given the scenario described, I doubt that the user performs a regular back up of their PC.  Following advice to change to POP3 without clear understanding of the differences could lead to a total loss of vital emails in the event of a PC crash.

[#5]

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@Gel wrote:
Changing to POP3 from IMAP would prevent this from happening in the future.

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How do you know they are not already using POP3 in their email client but without the option to delete emails from the server turned on?

[#6]

Thanks everyone, my Mum was using POP3 set up to not delete from server.

I tried the Plusnet live chat, but was told I would have to delete all the items manually. A few days later I logged in to webmail again and was able to delete all the items with one click. Whatever the problem was it seems to have been fixed. 

Thanks for all the suggestions.