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shaw email quantity limit won't reset

vm2
Grasshopper

Short synopsis:  quota almost reached.  On the web host, sent box almost full (925 mb);  Set up an imap account on desktop computer, downloaded sent, moved sent to local: sent;  waited a few days, checked webmail host:  sent shows 0 messages, 925 MB used.  Inbox: 4 meg, drafts: 0, junk: 0, trash: 1mb, shaw-restored-jul11-2016:0 (just to be complete... that one has been empty since then).  BUT:  sent:(messages:0;size: 925mb) with properties: no retention policy set.
I can't get the sent to reset its size.  There is nowhere in the GUI that I can find to do that.  Clearly the system is not resetting the size for me.  I spent an hour back and forth, starting with a chat bot, then a dude who will remain nameless who's final statement to me was:  "I tried deleting emails from my account and it works just fine", this after an hour of getting, first, the robot, then him to take the point seriously and solve the issue.  CLEARLY these guys know nothing about the mail server.  So I am off to the community in the hope that someone will have a clue.
 
Thanks in advance for any help on this.

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The pop3 settings are:  'completely remove the incoming d...

vm2
Grasshopper

The pop3 settings are:  'completely remove the incoming deleted messages' as you showed, but I don't have the 'download old mail' checkbox checked under Message Downloads.    I don't think that would be the problem.  The inbox shows almost empty, as noted above.  It is the sent box that is the problem, and POP3 has no contact with that box. They were only generated when she connected via her phone.
I am keeping this answer in the thread for future reference for others so we all know what settings matter and don't matter.  Folks sometimes read these things when they have a problem.  But from now on I will work through the ticket. 
Thanks, Tony.  You work is professional and I appreciate it.

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hmm this is certainly odd. After you downloaded the sent...

shaw-tony
Moderator
Moderator

@vm2 hmm this is certainly odd. After you downloaded the sent messages to your local PC, did you delete your sent messages on https://webmail.shaw.ca/? Since there are no indications of messages, this is something we will need to escalate up to our engineers to resolve. Feel free to send me a direct message with your email address and a temporary password for it.

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Hello Tony:  Your response, noting an escalation to engin...

vm2
Grasshopper

Hello Tony: 
Your response, noting an escalation to engineering, is appropriate. In answer to your question, when the mail was dragged and dropped into the local sent folder, (in Thunderbird), the originals stayed around with a big red X and the items shown with a line through them on in the IMAP sent folder.  I transferred about 1/2 of them (it is a slow process when the number is so large),  I quit the process and left if for a several days.  The inbox ones on the IMAP account with the red X on them had disappeared on the Thunderbird host.  I presumed all was well, and the limit problem had been resolved.  I moved the remainder of them, with the result that the red X was there on the remainder of the IMAP ones.  I have not checked back today, but my assumption was that the remainder were gone.

I went to the webmail account, and verified that indeed the status on the webmail account was as reported above.

However, there are complicating factor, perhaps.  But first, to provide meaningful context, let me introduce myself.  The account we are dealing with is my wife's account, and she is anything but technical.  I, on the other hand, do software and hardware design and development on systems that are all over the world, albeit in a marginal market.  Not only do I code, but I also do customer service personally.  I don't farm it out.  Consequently I have many years of experience, so I know a bit about the process. 

In this case, one complicating factor is that my wife uses a cellphone, which obviously uses an IMAP type connection to the mail server.  I use and have always used a pop server, mostly for lack of trust of the host servers to be honest.  In the last years my wife has used her phone to send emails.  This resulted in the problem of the overrun Sent folder in the first place.  I decided to preserve her sent messages on her desktop computer, so I created an IMAP account on her Desktop computer and synched the SENT folder on the server, and followed the process above.  But meanwhile, the consequence was that the phone app (its an Android) stopped syncing mail.  It reports that it is busy every time she tries to open it.  That was easy for me to figure out:  The SENT folder obviously (for some reason beyond my imagination) decided to sync to that pc of sh phone. 
I presumed that this problem would go away when the server folders were back to approx. empty.  I haven't tried again on her phone, so I don't know the answer to that.  However, it might be the phone is somehow locking your server up.  I am not entirely sure how IMAP works, but it is possible that IMAP stops some processes if one of the connected devices (like that phone) is in the middle of a transaction.

That is about as much help as I can be at this time.  I haven't checked this morning if the problem has magically fixed itself.  I will do that once I am finished this reply.
Now that I am far enough down in this message that almost no-one will read it (the average attention span of most people is comparable to a nat), I also note that asking for direct access to the email account is the kind of access I ask for from my clients, and often get it, BUT for Shaw techs to ask for that kind of access is entirely inappropriate.   Instead, there should be macros written for the mail  host program to generate meaningful transaction and statistical reports that are anonymized to provide tech support all the information they require.  Have a word with that bloody company you work.  They should set professional standards and provide professional tools to you folks.

Thanks again.  The idiot who handled the chat doesn't have a clue.  Again, not his fault.  Your management need some serious lessons.

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I appreciate your time in explaining all these details to...

shaw-tony
Moderator
Moderator

@vm2 I appreciate your time in explaining all these details to me. It is certainly possible for the backend server to still recognize the sent emails as not being deleted/moved which our engineers can resolve. Your wife's email is still indeed reading as almost full. As a forum moderator, we usually are unable to support specific account-related changes. I wanted to extend and speed up the process of submitting a ticket to our engineers for you which I inquired for that information. When you have a chance, can you please take a screenshot of the sent email inbox showing zero messages and webmail still reporting a full inbox as you described above? You can always direct message me the info.

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I would have sent to you directly, but I am not familiar...

vm2
Grasshopper

I would have sent to you directly, but I am not familiar with this GUI, and didn't see any obvious way of doing that, so I have kept the replies in the thread.

*mod removed private info*

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perfect. I saved the info and have sent up a ticket on yo...

shaw-tony
Moderator
Moderator

@vm2 perfect. I saved the info and have sent up a ticket on your behalf. Your ticket is tracked under ENOP0007754. You can send a direct message via my user profile here for future reference.

Just to make sure, do you have the factory settings similar to below for the mail settings?

Capture.PNG

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The pop3 settings are:  'completely remove the incoming d...

vm2
Grasshopper

The pop3 settings are:  'completely remove the incoming deleted messages' as you showed, but I don't have the 'download old mail' checkbox checked under Message Downloads.    I don't think that would be the problem.  The inbox shows almost empty, as noted above.  It is the sent box that is the problem, and POP3 has no contact with that box. They were only generated when she connected via her phone.
I am keeping this answer in the thread for future reference for others so we all know what settings matter and don't matter.  Folks sometimes read these things when they have a problem.  But from now on I will work through the ticket. 
Thanks, Tony.  You work is professional and I appreciate it.

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I am advised that most of the emails were sitting in the...

shaw-tony
Moderator
Moderator

@vm2 I am advised that most of the emails were sitting in the 'Sent' folder, but had been marked as deleted by an IMAP client. This functionality does not actually result in the emails being deleted with the Shaw email address - the messages must be moved to trash. The emails are now visible for your wife to delete via webmail. Please move them to the trash and completely remove them.

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HI Tony: On Sunday, when I logged in, I found many of the...

vm2
Grasshopper

HI Tony:

On Sunday, when I logged in, I found many of the emails showing up again in that folder (curiously, there were no attachments showing).  I suspected that I could reclaim the memory by deleting these emails inside the web client.  I did not.  I wanted to see what your engineers would do next.

Please note that your engineering staff are deflecting, as any trained engineer will do: It is simply not possible for any engineer to say: "Oh, right: that was a mistake", or "That was a problem with our stuff".  They are trained emphatically from day one to never say anything that could support a claim of liability.   Unfortunately, as a consequence, problems are often left to fester and re-emerge at a later time, so folks like you can go through the process of deflecting the customer base yet again.
The engineering staff had to ACTIVELY cause those emails to show up again in the SENT folder on the server.  Furthermore, it is completely without credibility to suggest that the client can delete items from the IMAP client, but they will never be actually deleted (for the purposes of space allotment) until that customer logs into the web client and deletes the files there (which magically re-appear after several days and a complaint to you guys).

This is my last communication on the matter, but I sincerely hope you have words with someone and convince them that this is unacceptable.

Again, you personally have done very well by me,, and I appreciate it.

Vern

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your feedback is appreciated and I will pass it along to...

shaw-tony
Moderator
Moderator

@vm2 your feedback is appreciated and I will pass it along to their team. Glad I could help in some way! Let me know if you need anything else 🙂 

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