Why is an IMAP Inbox Only Displaying 10,000 Items When There are Many More Emails on the Server?

Anonymous
2022-05-04T04:23:15+00:00

I have an IMAP email account that is hosted by AOL Mail, which I download into Outlook 365. The AOL Account has emails going as far back as 2015, and until recently all of those emails were visible (and searchable) through Outlook. About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that I could no longer search for emails going back farther than 6 months ago. Those emails are still on the AOL server; I can see them if I use AOL's webmail interface (which is pretty mediocre). But they are no longer downloading into my IMAP inbox. Indeed, at the bottom of the inbox it now says I have 10,000 items. 

                                     [!\[\](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/40c12e9d-b5a2-4a30-8bc4-4503de01cbbc?platform=QnA

That's the maximum. If I delete say 100 emails, another 100 emails will download from the AOL server but the downloading will stop when I hit 10,000. (When new emails download from the account, older emails are deleted so I'm just about always at 10,000 items). The full set of emails remains on the AOL server.
In my IMAP Account Settings for this email account, I have the "Keep Mail offline" setting pushed all the way to the right at "All".
[!\\ I can't find any setting in Outlook that limits the number of emails. Nor does there appear to be any setting in the AOL account that limits 3rd party IMAP mailboxes to only 10,000 items (at least not one that I can find). New emails are downloading and syncing with the AOL server, so my connection settings appear to be correct.
Is there some kind of Registry setting that is limiting the number of items that will load into this email inbox? I used to have access to all of the emails that were on the AOL server. Is there any way to get that back? One last note. I deleted the AOL account from Inbox, rebooted and then reinstalled the AOL account. It still only downloaded 10,000 items in the IMAP inbox. Also I'm using the most recent version of Outlook 365.
Thanks for any help anyone can provide.](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/e4efa42d-54c3-4fa7-b54a-ae7d93efb421?platform=QnA)](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/40c12e9d-b5a2-4a30-8bc4-4503de01cbbc?platform=QnA)

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-06-12T18:07:08+00:00

    I am afraid though, that instead of admitting to lying to many customers and reversing this change, Yahoo/AOL will just say - we do not support 3rd party Apps, talk to Microsoft about making the New API Call.

    i THINK AOL gave that up a few years ago when they forced us to set an app password for third party apps. I forget if they had an explicit one for Outlook, or said that outlook used the generic one. So they acknowledged and assisted Outlook users. They can't now say they don't support it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-06-12T14:36:53+00:00

    I have the full Office subscription with Outlook 365 and have exactly the same 10,000 email limitaiton on folders now. Happened in the past week or two.

    Brutal.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-06-12T13:54:39+00:00

    Mark_302

    This is an amazing research, thank you for doing this.

    You pinpointed precisely what some of us have been guessing around intuitively.

    This is a very concrete proof of a change in IMAP functionality that imposed Messagelimit onto all clients who have used special NEW API to get Unlimited messages. Yahoo caught red-handed!

    I am afraid though, that instead of admitting to lying to many customers and reversing this change, Yahoo/AOL will just say - we do not support 3rd party Apps, talk to Microsoft about making the New API Call. And that is bad news for those of us who, like me, use versions of Outlook other that 365, that won't get any updates even if Microsoft created the fix.

    In fact, it just occurred to me, Microsoft could have instigated the change by Yahoo/AOL to shake out the users of older Outlook version. Clearly, Microsoft wants you to buy 365 subscription rather than continue using old Outlook that was bought 10 years ago or so.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-06-10T23:53:41+00:00

    Thanks

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-06-10T22:07:46+00:00

    Good find Richard, I will join you there

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