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
    2022-09-22T20:18:07+00:00

    I think that's correct and was going go say it myself -- I believe they see the name and can take different actions based on the different string -- not different servers,

    I think mine have stopped cycling, because every time I check they're in the same general size (it does go up for new emails, which did not happen with the 10K limit -- with that, as soon as one came in at the top, they tossed one at the bottom).

    However, it is spinning CPU 10-20%, and the Win10 box that reports it shows (task manager) as "very high" power usage for outlook. So much that I don't want to keep it running and keep either closing it or working offline. My old PC crashes often, and when I've felt the back, it's very hot, so I suspect those go together. (The new one I don't want to damage.)

    To summarize, my new PC stopped around 21K and change (actually it was 22,411 one or more days ago and I received more email than I deleted). So maybe it has been cycling but I've never seen it go low (after the first few days when I did see it down at/around 1000). My old PC, after deleting the OST (with outlook down), came up only to about 14K. After a few days I deleted it again and it eventually got up to 19K and change.

    I should mention with each post: This is AOL. Inbox actually a little over 60K.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-09-20T16:46:46+00:00

    I called Yahoo multiple times and they blamed Microsoft Outlook. I called Microsoft and they deny they are limiting emails to 10K or whatever you’re getting. Outlook showed synchronization errors and I printed them out but after deleting the Yahoo account and adding it back, those sync errors are gone from my Yahoo folders.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-09-20T14:29:56+00:00

    Well it took over a day with occasional bursts, but it now only only adds new mail (to the one where I deleted the OST with it down). Except that forget 60K, I can't even get to 20K -- it's currently at 14,298. So the empty one didn't even build to where the other is. This is ridiculous.

    Has anyone contacted AOL/yahoo? I know if I call the standard line they'll tell me they did nothing, and/or blame outlook and say to use their web or AOL app interface. The advantage of outlook for searching is gone with so much missing.

    Note: it does still show it is synchronizing, but has much to sync yet it does nothing but overheat my PC if I leave it running too long.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-09-19T03:17:45+00:00

    I had the same issue. With the "export" IMAP server, my PC was "synchronizing inbox" for the past two days. Despite reboots, etc, it would not complete the synchronization process. I even tried rebuilding the OSTs from scratch. The Yahoo IMAP servers are obviously not functioning correctly.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-09-17T17:05:17+00:00

    As of this morning and until now, my inbox on my one PC is stuck at 25,821 messages, and will no longer synch at all. My last new message was at 9:45, and online at AOL there are a further 28 messages that have since come in. Closing and relaunching Outlook has no effect...the same 25,821 messages and no further synching. Bizarrely, my other PC is still synching and still shows all 226k messages. What a gong show!

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