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This post is a variation on the "Where Did My Messages Go" article I published a while back, as it warrants publishing again. Also, in an upcoming release of Web Mail, a proactive explanation similar to this is going to be incorporated into the First Time User dialog that comes up the very first time you log in to Web Mail, to try and head off this confusion and make sure users understand it when they begin using Web Mail.
Note: everywhere below that I refer to Outlook or Outlook Express, that applies to any email software you have installed on your computer whether it is EarthLink Mailbox, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc. They are all POP3 email clients and all work the same way.)
In the Web Mail Feedback mailbox (click the Feedback link inside Web Mail), one of the most common sources of questions continues to be users who get confused about the difference between Web Mail and other email software like Outlook Express or EarthLink Mailbox. The questions usually take the form of "Why were my messages deleted without my permission?" or "Why did my messages just disappear while I was using Web Mail?" and they often use much more aggressive language than that. These users are frustrated or angry because they don't understand what happened. Then the next time they go into their other email software, their "lost" messages magically appear. Then we get another round of questions with the theme of "Why do my messages go to my Outlook Express, I want them to go to Web Mail?" or "How come I can get my messages in my Outlook at work but then I can't see them when I'm at home?"
This article is going to answer all of those questions, and when we get them in the Feedback mailbox, I'm going to just refer the user to this article.
First I want to make two things crystal clear up front, because these questions are asked frequently:
- For any unique email address you have on EarthLink, there is only one mailbox. There is not a Web Mail mailbox and an Outlook Mailbox. There is one mailbox. It is a physical folder named Inbox on our server and it is where we deliver all of your new messages (except Known Spam and Suspect Email, which are just other folders). Both Web Mail and Outlook Express read from this same mailbox.
- I've investigated hundreds of user reports of lost messages, and I've not yet found a single case where EarthLink ever deleted a message from a user's Inbox. It just doesn't happen. So if you had messages in your Inbox that disappeared, the explanation is in this article. EarthLink will never intentionally delete any messages from any user's Inbox. And barring some catastrophe that would probably affect thousands of users at once, it never happens accidently either.
So with that out of the way, let's proceed with the full explanation of how things work.
When you check email using any email software running locally on your computer (like Outlook Express, EarthLink Mailbox, Thurderbird, etc.) that application checks the mailbox on our server for new messages, and then retrieves a copy of the messages from our server and puts them on your local computer hard drive to be viewed by your email software. And unless you have changed the default settings of your software, it then deletes the copies on our server for you automatically. This is what is meant by "retrieving" your mail. Most email applications do this automatically when they are run, and then continue to do so on timed intervals unless you shut them down. Once a message has been retrieved by your email software (Outlook etc.), the only copy of that message now lives inside that software, and cannot be viewed from any other computer, or from Web Mail, or in any other email software.
Web Mail on the other hand, is a way to view messages that are still on our servers, using only your web browser (hence the name Web Mail) and not requiring you to install any software. And Web Mail does not make any local copies of messages onto your computer, it only views messages that are on our server. So you can check Web Mail from multiple computers and see the exact same messages, plus any new ones that have arrived. If you only use Web Mail and never use other software to check email, the only way a message can ever be deleted from your Inbox is if you delete it yourself while using Web Mail. Otherwise we just leave all your messages in your Inbox for as long as you own the account.
You can summarize the difference like this:
WebMail - allows you to view and manage your messages inside your mailbox without ever taking them out of the mailbox. The mailbox lives on an EarthLink server, not on your computer.
Outlook Express and other POP software - removes all messages from your mailbox so that you can view and manage them on your own computer. But you can change the settings to also leave copies in the mailbox.
The two scenarios where users sometimes perceive that they have lost messages are:
- They use both Web Mail and some other software to check email, and the other software deletes the messages from our server, making the messages no longer accessible from Web Mail. In a surprising number of cases, the user doesn't realize they are using other email software, they have it running automatically and just ignore it. Or they clicked an email link in a web page or document somewhere and that caused their computer to automatically open the "default" email program on that computer, and that software is set to just automatically download new messages. This is why we get reports that a user was working inside Web Mail, and all of sudden their messages just disappeared. That is because that other software just performed an automatic email check and deleted those messages. When we check the logs for that user, these cases are obvious. We see both Web Mail access to the mailbox and other software using POP access (what all other email software uses for EarthLink), occurring at about the same time.
- The user is checking email from multiple computers, and they see messages in Outlook Express on one computer, but then they can't see them from the other computer, either using Web Mail or any other software. These scenarios are often at home vs. at work. Obviously the messages were retrieved and deleted by one computer and now can't be retrieved by the other one.
So, how do you manage this? The solution is a setting that exists in all POP Mail software like Outlook Express and Earthlink Mailbox. That setting is usually called "Leave a copy of messages on server" or "Leave messages on the server". It will be found in the Account settings in your email software. In Outlook Express, click Tools / Accounts / Properties / Advanced and check the box there. In EarthLink Mailbox click Tools / Settings / Accounts / Edit and check the box there. Once you have done this, that software will no longer remove any messages from the server, it will only retrieve copies of them. And those messages are then still accessible to Web Mail, and to other email software you may be running on that computer or another computer.
If you make this change, keep in mind you still have to delete messages sometimes to prevent your mailbox from filling up to its quota. You can do this in Web Mail, or you can occasionally do a manual delete from within your other software (most software allows this by right-clicking the message or selecting multiple messages before doing the right-click, and then selecting Delete). But now deletes won't happen unknown to you and confuse you. My recommendation is that if you regularly use Web Mail, then you should set all other email software you use to leave messages on the server and only delete from within Web Mail. If you use other email software from multiple computers and you rarely use Web Mail, then let one computer be your master and only allow it to delete the messages from the server. Or always use Web Mail from other computers. Knowing how things work now, you can work out your own system for managing your messages on multiple computers.
My own preference is that I always use Web Mail exclusively, and I occasionally will start up Outlook just to retrieve and archive old messages when I approach my mailbox quota. What I give up by only using Web Mail is that I can't work offline, but I'm always online anyway. I don't need to review and compose my email while I'm on a plane.
Here's one last tip about how you can use your POP software (Outlook Express) to archive messages occasionally. POP software can only see the Inbox folder on the server, and if you have created other folders in Web Mail to sort and store your messages on the server, those can't be seen by Outlook Express or other POP software. So what you do is, in WebMail, move the messages to be archived into the Inbox, and then retrieve them with your other software and move them to the local folder you want them archived in. It is a little cumbersome, but you can move 200 messages at a time in Web Mail (go to Preferences / Web Mail options and set the messages-per-page up to 200). And in your Outlook Express, you can easily move the entire Inbox to another folder in a single action. So you can archive a few thousand messages from several folders in under 5 minutes not counting download time.
Discussion
Posted by: Ronn Newton | May 29, 2007 1:56 PM | (26)
Hello,
Outlook does allow you to set and option to delete retrieved messages from the server after a set number of days.
So, you can have the best of both worlds your messages in Outlook and in Web Mail for up to n days. Therefore, you can read and respond to messages in either location while being (reasonably) sure your Web Mail mailbox will not get full and do so without acting to delete the messages on the server.
1. Select Tools / E-Mail Accounts / (if needed) View of Change Existing E-Mail Account
2. Click on the desired e-mail account, then click the Next button
3. Click the Change button
4. In the Internet E-mail Settings dialog, click the Advanced tab
5. On the Advanced tab, under Delivery, select Leave a copy of the message on the server
6. If desired, click Remove from server after ... days, then enter the desired number of days
7. Click the OK button as needed to exit back to the application
Thanks for the tip.
Email Guy
Posted by: Sheri | June 2, 2007 12:59 AM | (27)
Ok, I read the "where did my email go" and now that I've made this mistake and copied the emails that were in the webmail to my outlook express before realizing I needed to check the "leave a copy on the server" box, can I put them back? Is there a restore feature or option available?
Email Guy
Posted by: Vicki | June 25, 2007 11:44 AM | (28)
Dear Email Guy,
(2nd message) I haven't received any new emails since 6/19/07.
They are not in Outlook Express. I haven't changed anything in Webmail that I know of. I know I should be getting some email. Obviously you can't contact me by email, but I can see new messages in your Ask Email Guy blog.
Any suggestions welcomed.
Also, the message are being deleted by Outlook Express or some other email software running on your computer. Most recently this occurred at Jun 24 01:50:46 EDT when it retrieved and deleted 37 messages. You will find those messages in that software. You account was last checked from that software at Jun 25 01:59:53 EDT so it is still going to remove your new messages when present. You may find this FAQ helpful.
Email Guy
Email Guy
Posted by: Kathy | July 5, 2007 10:54 PM | (29)
I've been a WebMail customer for many years now. I've also inadvertently sent my e-mail messages to Outlook enough times that I no longer panic at the sight of an empty Webmail inbox and have been very grateful for your advice on how to save copies onto the server. However, I have recently added Microsoft Office 2007 and find that the directions for Outlook 2007 are a little different. Here are the steps I used:
1. Click on Tools
2. Click on Account Settings
3. Click on the e-mail account I want to save on WebMail
4. Click on "Change . . . "
5. Click on More Settings
6. Click on Internet E-mail Settings
7. Click on Advanced
8. Click on Leave a copy on the server . . .
9. Make sure to save changes
Unfortunately, I could only do this AFTER my e-mail messges had all been diverted to Outlook and removed from the server. FORTUNATELY, I thought this might happen, so I did this with one of my less frequently used e-mail accounts (I tried to use one of the nice, anonymous e-mail accounts but Outlook was too fast for me). How do I put these changes into place for my major e-mail inbox BEFORE Outlook downloads it so that messages are saved on the server, and viewed on both?
I really appreciate this blog and have been able to solve lots of problems, and get a better understanding of how my computer "thinks," from it. Thanks so much and keep up the good work!
Email Guy
Posted by: Woody | November 9, 2007 12:07 PM | (30)
Nov 9th about 130am was using internet to find a clock repair shop and sent a tried to contact one of these shops from within their web site. I was asked to log in and did so and then sent my question. It appears that when I did that it activated Outlook Express which I have not used on my laptop... or if I have it is very rare. I then noticed that my Webmailbox inbox was deleted. I am not sure what settings to use to prevent this from happening if this is what did happen. I tried to open outlook express and there were no messages in outlook and no address book. I have not used Outlook because I was aware that my messages would be transferred to Outlook but I guess by using a contact section of a web site .... outlook is automatically activated.... any suggestions on how to prevent this or prevent losing my email from webmail when I do this...
See the FAQ above for more help.
Email Guy
Posted by: Don | December 7, 2007 8:18 AM | (31)
Hello. The 'other' (personal) computer is currently in 'trying to retrieve data after crash' mode so have been exclusively using WebMail on the work computer. One feature I acutely miss from TotalAccess is the ability to INSERT an image into the body portion of the email itself, rather than forced to send along as a clunky attachment. Will this feature ever be offered/configured? Thanks for your help.
Email Guy
Posted by: Sandra | January 16, 2008 11:46 AM | (32)
Hi! I am in the process of switching over from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. I am a Novice computer owner, but trying to learn! I need explicit directions on how to Import my Web Mail messages and address book to Firefox. Thank you!
Email Guy
Posted by: Jeff Wynn | January 16, 2008 3:29 PM | (33)
Earthlink hosts my family domain (www.wynn.org) and family members routinely POP to email accounts I set up there.
Today one of them tried to use Earthlink webmail, but it didn't accept the ID (deleted@wynn.org) or the password - it wouldn't say which.
I'm pretty certain he used the correct password but he couldn't get into it.
Please help. Thanx.
When he tried to log in to the wrong site, an error message with that correct link would have appeared. If he used the right site and it failed, then the credentials were just typed in wrong.
Email Guy
Posted by: glo | February 4, 2008 8:39 AM | (34)
I can't get my time stamp to work. You mentioned something about blocking the time or whatever, but this is getting really annoying and it would be helpful if you could help explain just HOW my computer is not communicating with earthlink email to make the time stamp appropriate.
We are aware of a bug where if you log into My Account first, and then you come into Web Mail (which won't make you log in again) then Web Mail won't get your correct timezone, since we do that only on the login page. Try logging out of Web Mail and back in.
If that isn't the case, then the only thing I know of that could interfere with Web Mail obtaining the correct time zone, would be some security software running on your computer blocking the javascript from working in your browser. Temporarily turn off whatever web security software you are using while accessing Web Mail, to try and narrow down the cause.
Email Guy
Posted by: Michael | February 5, 2008 11:03 PM | (35)
Hello Sir, All the FAQs and notes seem to be about receiving mail, not sending it. I spent quite a bit of time last night writing an old friend. It was a long enough letter that apparently Earthlink dropped my connection for lack of activity. Then when I pushed 'send' I was told that my mail may have been corrupted and not sent. It did disappear. This was sent mail, not recieved, so where did it go and is it recoverable? It was written on webmail.
Thank you,
M
Email Guy
Posted by: William Newman | February 7, 2008 4:18 PM | (36)
I usually check my e-mail messages in Webmail first because it's quicker than waiting for them to download into my Earthlink Mailbox. Later, as my Webmail gets full, I dump them into my Mailbox. I have two questions here. 1) Some messages I can read fine in Webmail (from two people in particular) show up in my Earthlink Mailbox completely blank. How can I get the whole message to show up in Mailbox? 2) In Webmail I can't use the e-mail groups I can use from the Address book in Earthlink Mailbox. How can I work around this? I have some fairly large (20-40 names) groups and it's too tedius to type the names individually.
2) The two address books are independent and there isn't any way to sync the group associations between them. The groups are just associations you set up between contacts to display them all together or use as a mailing list. Unfortunately the sync feature only transfers contacts, not group associations. However, it is easy to set up groups in Web Mail. Just click Address Book, click Add Group, and then select the contacts you want in that group. Creating one with 20-40 members will take you about 2 minutes.
Email Guy
Posted by: Phil G | February 14, 2008 4:37 PM | (37)
I have read your explanation of why and how emails disappear from an inbox. Neither scenario appears to apply. Twice in the past 4 months, my entire inbox was deleted for reasons that I do not understand. In both of these instances it occurred on my home computer after the last access was on my home computer. It happened today after I got a message in a little popup box in the lower right corner of the screen that I had received an email, then another telling me that I had 3 emails. I clicked on the Web Mail link at the top of the earthlink home page and it reflected that I had zero messages, when I had had over one hundred. I access my email one of two ways: from that link and from a bookmark of that link. This is the only email program that I knowingly use for my earthlink address. I do access the internal email from my employer on my home computer. However, they are in no way related, as far as I know, and messages to one never appear in the other. Please help me figure out what I did wrong!!! I'm guessing that they cannot be retrieved and I do not want this to happen again. Thank you.
Check your Start menu for any installed email program. Before you open it up, I'd suggest you put your computer offline, to avoid doing the same thing again. Open the program and look for the missing messages. Then go into the account settings and set it to leave messages on the server, so the problem never happens again. Or, if you never intend to use it, just uninstall it. Then you can't accidentally run it and have it retrieve your messages.
I checked your mailbox logs and just today you ran that other email software and it retrieved and deleted 163 messages. This happened at
Feb 14 12:22:07 EST
That's where the messages will be found.
Email Guy
Posted by: HubertH | February 23, 2008 3:49 PM | (38)
Can I configure my Earthlink email acount/service to retrieve messages from some other account (non-Earthlink) via POP? I want the message from the other account to be included in my Earthlink inbox and by accessible via Webmail.
Email Guy
Posted by: John | March 3, 2008 3:49 PM | (39)
I am switching from totalaccess to earthlink web mail and want to move the email from my computer to the web mail. Is there a way to do that?
Email Guy
Posted by: Jill | May 14, 2008 12:27 PM | (40)
I am not ready to delete all my old messages on the server, but I would like to begin deleting new messages after 30 days. If I make this change in the tools menu, will it take affect with future messages or will it automatically delete everything over 30 days currently on the server? Thanks!
Email Guy
Posted by: Nicola | June 5, 2008 9:49 PM | (41)
I want to add new names to an existing mailing list. The WebMail Help only has info about creating a new list, or sending to, renaming or deleting an existing list. Thanks.
Email Guy
Posted by: Terry McDonald | June 11, 2008 1:07 PM | (42)
I'm sorry if it's in here somewhere - I figure I've searched long enough to post a question :-)
Is there a way to get the messages I've SENT using Webmail to be copied/moved to my computer (I use Earthlink Mailbox)? The only way I can see is to move all of them to Webmail INBOX and then let Earthlink Mailbox download them (then I would have to move them to the SENT folder in Earthlink mailbox or otherwise ID them as e-mail that I've sent...).
Thanks,
Terry
Email Guy
Posted by: Chris | July 9, 2008 10:33 AM | (43)
I had all my inbox e-mail deleted from webmail. I contacted Earthlink support. They thought I used a mail client like outlook express to download the files. I assured him that we never use any mail clients except for MacMail. We have preferences set on the Mac not to delete files from the server as we did have a similar problem with the Mac several years ago. While I was chatting with the technician, 1 new e-mail came in. I told him about this. A few minutes later that e-mail was also deleted. Only myself and my partner were here and we were both looking at my computer as we chatted with the technician. Is there any other information you can tell me about this? Is it possible a virus or some outside third party could be doing this without my knowledge. My sent messages were not affected and are still on the Webmail server. As I am typing this message, 4 more messages have been deleted from webmail and my inbox is empty. I changed the password to my account about 20 mintues ago just as a precaution.
Email Guy
Posted by: Suzi Barnes | August 26, 2008 3:21 AM | (44)
I went into my Webmail tonight and every reply I made asked me if I wanted to add the name to my address book since I have my SPAM blocker set to high. These people are my regular contacts. After the third one asking me to add I went to my address book and Webmail told me I have no saved contacts. How can 250 contacts in my address book be missing?
Email Guy
Posted by: kiki | September 3, 2008 3:43 PM | (45)
If I read an email from my earthlink web mail, and dont delete it will it come up in my outlook as a new message or will it go to my old (read messages)
Thank you,
Kiki
Email Guy
Posted by: heather | September 9, 2008 11:50 PM | (46)
Thank you for writing this blog in plain understandable language that even I can follow. You have solved a problem for me that was very annoying but I could not understand what other sites were on about. Many. many thanks!
Posted by: jennifer | December 12, 2008 1:07 AM | (47)
I've read your article on WebMail & POP software as well as the comments -- sorry if my questions were answered elsewhere but I'm not seeing them.
First, will messages that have been diverted into the Known Spam folder on WebMail NOT go to my locally running email software when I retrieve messages?
Second, I have just (tonight) changed the Known Spam settings such that those messages will be saved until I can look them over to be sure they are spam. I suddenly quit getting certain messages (forum notifications, etc.) that I used to get, and now I suspect they were sent to the Known Spam folder. Unbeknownst to me, it was set to the default, which of course meant those messages were getting deleted automatically.
Is there any way to retroactively see those messages, or are they gone forever?
Email has been a little funky since near the end of November (2008) when some sort of maintenance was being done on the server and I had no email for a day then sporadically for a day or two after that. I think messages got lost during that time.
I hope this makes sense... and thanks very much for any ideas you have.
Email Guy
Posted by: Phil | July 15, 2009 10:27 PM | (48)
Hi! Is there a way to set Web Mail as the default Windows email program, so that when clicking on email contact links, Web Mail opens, rather than one of the default programs on the internet
options drop-down list? I don't use AOL, but that's what opens, as it's currentl the default. Can I add Web Mail to that list somehow? Thanks!
Email Guy