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

I started having the same issue with yahoo mail on Outlook desktop on June 1st. Two different PCs, two versions of Windows.

I highly doubt this is a desktop client issue, looks to me like IMAP servers introduced 10000 limit per folder on downloads .

I am trying to battle it out with Yahoo but it is very hard. AOL uses the same infrastructure don't they? We all need to start pounding Yahoo/AOL support with this issue, maybe they will do something to fix it if they get a lot of complaints

Just got another response from Yahoo, which would be valid for AOL too, I guess

Thank you for contacting Yahoo Support.According to our engineer team, depending on the version of Outlook that you're using, there may appear an issue with the third party app which doesn’t support our advanced IMAP implementationCould you please let me know the version of Outlook that you're using?

This is exactly what I suspected

Can I ask people to please reply with their Outlook versions, so that I can demonstrate to Yahoo that their 'implementation' is bad for all versions of Outlook?

Thanks for all your work, Yan. Starting a few days ago, I had the identical problem as everybody else (mine was AOL). Deleted and reinstalled, same 10,000 max for Inbox and Sent.

I use Office 365 from work and I hope this is the version info you need:

Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2205 Build 16.0.15225.20172) 64-bit .

Also, maybe you can convince Yahoo if you tell them that it's not only Outlook but Apple as well !!

I found the following complaints from Mac users having the same issues with both AOL and Yahoo!! :

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253810183https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253646691

I wanted to respond, but don't have an Apple ID.

I called AOL and the rep saw I had 70,000 emails on the server going back 20 years. He went to a Supervisor who said that the 10,000 must be my number of Unread emails. He then remoted in to my machine so he could verify that the older emails were actually missing.

I told him about response you got re: "advanced IMAP implementation", and of course he said that it must relate solely to Yahoo, insisting that AOL didn't make any such change.

He concluded that there was nothing AOL could do because since my old emails were still on the server, it must be an Outlook problem.

I literally read him some of the Mac users' posts, and he told me that it wasn't my place to report or solve other User's problems, only mine. They should contact Apple, and I should check with Microsoft.

I pointed out that it was HIGHLY unlikely Apple AND Microsoft would change their IMAP protocols within days of each other and "coordinate" to both create this 10,000 limit, and he said that if there was that kind of major problem, AOL would have issued an internal "Bulletin" about it.

If more people called in, he thought maybe AOL might become aware of it, but without a Bulletin, there was nothing he could do.

So let's all "pound Yahoo/AOL", as you suggested in your first post.

Good morning Norm

Thank you so much for your detailed email and for your research. I will pass the details of your Outlook 365 version to them.

All this info points to the same bad change in a way IMAP Servers for Yahoo and AOL handle the download, that must have been rolled gradually affecting users across the country in the last two months or so. The support people are very defensive as could be expected, but in my case it seems to have gotten escalated to their engineering team, who might be slightly more inclined to investigate rather than work off the customer response script. At least I got a case going back and forth via email, which almost never happens. Hope it does not get shut down by some overzealous manager

I don't expect them to respond before next week and will pass on more information from you at that time. Will keep you posted.

It happened to me about 2 days ago. I regularly use emails from years ago, with a simple search (from, and starred). I ended up deleting about 5000 emails and it went back, but far from far enough.

The AOL app had all the emails but searching was relatively primitive -- eventually I found I could use a pulldown and select starred, although only for the simple search. That in itself might allow me to use those emails, but I further found I could use the save button and save on AOL, and it created a folder in outlook. Could ONLY move, not copy, so I tested it with email I was going to delete anyway, and it worked. Gave me a bit of a scare when I moved a bunch but they eventually showed up.

I called support, and VIP support. Both said it's a problem with the third party app. The first one told me to get local support (in other words go to paid support somewhere), the second at least suggested their webmail which was about the same except I didn't see how to find starred (flagged) emails. So I managed to make a new folder and move in what I needed to access.

BTW, I have a PC I'm trying to find the time to decommission and reimage at WIn10 (failed a number of times to convert, so I'll restore an old backup or restore factory image and do it). I'll have to reinstall everything but it will be a second computer, not used for serrious stuff.

For versions:

The one I'm sure just happened: Win 7 Pro, Office 2016 Pro Plus.

The one I wasn't using for that search, so can't say how long, Win 10 Pro, Office 2019 Home and Business.

NO WAY it was outlook. I actually thought Office 2016 wasn't getting updates, but it shows an installation date of May 13, 2022, but still, the limit only kicked in this week. (Older upgrade status on the Win10.)

I googled, but only now thought to reference AOL and IMAP: "did aol suddenly limit imap to 10000 emails" (no quotes). It found this topic.