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
    2022-07-05T22:18:51+00:00

    I am experiencing the precise same behaviors as Walker3000, and was going to contact AOL about the Spam/Bulk issue and then post about it here. Meanwhile, I've had to go to Web version to check Spam, as I too have legitimate emails ending up there.

    As far as downloading my approx. 150,000 emails, I started a day or two earlier than Walker3000. First day it stopped at around 18,000, next day up to 35,000, then around 60,000, and I'm now up to about 88,000.

    It generally increments about 5 or 10 at a time for a period of an hour or two, and then stops. I keep restarting Outlook, and even rebooted my machine a couple of times. Haven't figured out any pattern.

    The other thing that started happening (although I believe it actually started a bit prior to my switch to the new Export Imap) is that a ton of Spam ends up in my Inbox.

    That too comes in "bursts" (like 50 between maybe 6am and 10 am), then it's fine all day, and then at 8pm another 20 or 30).

    It was as though Spam filtering was being randomly "disabled", however that's not the case because during those periods where my Inbox is flooded, the Spam folder is also receiving emails. So it's more like the filter changes it's "sensitivity" at different times of the day (??)

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-03T06:39:14+00:00

    I have an additional observation.

    The Yahoo IMAP server version number is reported in Thunderbird IMAP logs as a response to the IMAP ID command. And the new end point that works correctly, export.imap.mail.yahoo.com:993, has an *older* server version number than the original end point with incorrect 10000 message behavior, imap.mail.yahoo.com:993 (1.1.20335 vs 1.1.20377). I made both these observations today while trying out the solution published by Daniel Lusby above.

    Taken together with Anne_0's observation above that this export.imap.mail.yahoo.com was introduced only recently in mid June, it is curious that a new function would be introduced with an older server version.

    A possible explanation could be that the 10000 behavior has been recognized internally as a bug by Yahoo but that the newer server version is still needed to support the Yahoo mail App. It might take some time to make and test a new release of the server. Introducing a new end point for third party client access would allow the server version to be reverted immediately for people using third party clients; while still allowing people with Yahoo clients to use the latest server features at the original end point.

    I would hope that, at a future date, there is a new version of the server released that works correctly for all clients.

    [Note also as a low level technical detail that both end points resolve to the same IP address. The selection of which server version is used seems to be based on the optional Server Name Indication parameter given as part of the TLS setup. I needed this detail to reproduce the results using OpenSSL as a debug client but this detail is already handled correctly by Outlook and Thunderbird so is likely not of general interest.]

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-03T04:20:18+00:00

    Has anyone done that yet? Do we know if you need a new app password? And I guess we have no idea whether this is temporary... maybe they'll do it and give a warning.

    I'll set that server and be prepared to need a new password, and I'll copy (NOT move) off older messages, in case they do it again.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-03T03:53:58+00:00

    What do you expect from the customer service peons... What's important the company paid attention to our demand, I am almost certain of it now. One for the people against greedy negligent arrogant corporations!

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-07-03T01:51:23+00:00

    OMG!! I just saw that AOL updated its Help page for IMAP settings on Jun 22, 2022 with the new server name!

    Yet their Customer Support team is totally oblivious to this.

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