Like many of you, I have multiple devices and multiple email accounts, so I use email clients to keep everything organized and available locally. I use Outlook 2013 on my Windows devices, and the standard iOS mail app on my Apple devices. All clients are configured the same to access my providers POP3 and SMTP servers, and all was working well, except on one platform, my Windows desktop. Messages were sending, but Outlook was hanging up when downloading new messages. It would sit and spin on "downloading" for hours, if I let it. Every so often a few emails would download, but it was a painful and incomplete process.
This was a vexing problem because mail was sending on the device, and occasionally, messages were downloading, so everything appeared to be set up correctly, plus the problem was limited to this single device. Hmmm.
First thing I did was verify a good network connection for the desktop, which was easy for this device, it's plugged directly into a Gig port on my router and upload and download speeds were optimal.
A comparison of email account settings across devices was next, to see if I could find any differences, and I did.
When I first set up my email clients, I used all of the same settings, except on the desktop. The difference was that I had the Outlook 2013 client on my desktop set to "Leave a copy of messages on the server" and I had also checked "delete messages from server after 14 days", a subcategory, as well. On all of the other devices I had only checked "Leave a copy of messages on the server" and hadn't checked any of the deletion options. I had done this so that I could keep my mail server account effortlessly clean, while not missing any messages on any of my devices. My thought, a valid one, was that 14 days before deletion would give me enough time to be sure that I had received all of my emails on all of my devices before they were deleted from the server, and it worked, for a while...
When I unchecked "delete messages after 14 days", my new emails started flowing fast and furious on the desktop, just like on all of my other devices. Nice, like poop through a goose, as they say. Problem solved.
But why was this setting causing me problems? After all, it's something email clients are designed to do. Well, I did a little research and here are the major reasons "Deleting messages from the server" will fail:
A large volume of emails on the mail server can strain both the server and your device, causing freeze ups. Yep, that's me.
Server Issues. This is probably part of the problem as well. My original provider sold my email domain and address to another provider, and that new provider would most definitely not be my email provider of choice, if I had a choice, but I don't. I want to keep my current domain, that email address is ingrained into everything in my life, and I'm not ready to rip it out by the roots and throw my life into turmoil at the moment. Hint: my "new" provider is famous for the phrase "You've got mail". Nuff said?
Outdated or buggy email apps. It's probably time for me to upgrade Outlook 2013 to Outlook 2024, but I'm also in need of upgrading my PC's so that they can run Windows 11, so... I'll wait and do it all at once. *sigh*
Incorrect server settings. They were correct across devices and should have worked. Harumph.
Slow or poor internet connection. Not my problem, man.
So, "Deleting messages from the server" was the issue that was hosing up my desktop, for a number of reasons, all stated above. To fix this in Outlook, go to "Email Account Settings", highlight the account you want to change, then click on "Change", "More Settings" and "Advanced". At the bottom of the advanced box, make sure that "Leave a copy of messages on the server" is checked, and that all of the subcategories that delete files from the server remain unchecked. It should look like this when you're done:
For now, I'm managing deletions on my mail server using the webmail interface from my provider. It's kind of painful; I'd prefer that it happened automagically, but it's a work around until I can clean up my mail server, and upgrade Outlook. There is another benefit to using Webmail occasionally btw, managing your spam filters at your mail server instead of on your individual devices is a much better solution in that constant battle with spam. Win, win.
One last thing, a friend was having the same issue with their Apple email client on their iPhone, messages either not downloading, or taking forever and then downloading in fits and starts. This same fix worked for them, so this problem is not unique to Outlook.
I think we all need to clean up our inboxes a little...
That is all.
