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Mail won't retrieve more than 10,000 emails in IMAP account

I've had an AOL email account that for years has been set up as an IMAP account in Mail. Since this week, it's limited the number of emails it will retrieve, so many have just vanished. However, I'm seemingly able to see all my emails when accessing them via webmail using a browser. Many times more emails are visible in the inbox when viewing the account using a browser.


I've rebuilt the account and also deleted and re-added the account. The email count remains limited to 10,000. When I look at "get info" for the email account, it states, "This account does not limit the space available to store your mail."


I've reached out to AOL. They say that because I'm supposedly able to view all my emails using webmail, the problem is not on their end and is most likely Apple Mail related.


What is occurring, and how can I restore functionality?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Apr 8, 2022 11:10 PM

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2 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Aug 23, 2022 9:50 AM in response to nq

nq wrote:

If I import all my AOL email into my Gmail account using Gmail's webmail "import mail and contacts," will the original emails still be retained in my AOL account? I'm concerned that all my AOL emails will be lost during the migration and neither show up in AOL or in Gmail.


It would be better to post your question directly, as this question is unrelated to the rest of this thread.


It would also be better to ask Google Support about this, as this message import / transfer is their service.


Generally: I would not expect deletion by default, though there might be an option.


If you can import just a folder using his Google import, then create and populate some folder with some rubbish mail messages, and you can then use that to test this. Or a scratch AOL account, for that matter. But likely best to check for Google FAQs and to then ask Google.

Question marked as Helpful

Jun 1, 2022 7:58 AM in response to Ima Poster

So what fixed it for me (with AOL at least) was deleting the mail account on mac mail, then when adding the account back I selected add other account>mail account rather than selecting the AOL option. A customer service rep from AOL had me create a one-time password through AOL's website under settings & security (i believe gmail has an equivalent) and added the mail account with my usual email address and the one time password. Everything synced up with some time and im showing 80k+ emails.

51 replies

Apr 17, 2022 4:55 PM in response to nq

The Mail app has no restrictions as far as I know (iCloud does and so do most ISP's who provide you with an email address); however, Mail stores the emails on your hard drive and if you are allowing your drive to get too full, that may have something to do with it. By the way, you need to maintain an absolute minimum of 15 - 20 GB of free space at all times in order for the OS to function properly. If you fill it up completely, it will simply stop functioning.

Question marked as Helpful

Jun 1, 2022 7:58 AM in response to Ima Poster

So what fixed it for me (with AOL at least) was deleting the mail account on mac mail, then when adding the account back I selected add other account>mail account rather than selecting the AOL option. A customer service rep from AOL had me create a one-time password through AOL's website under settings & security (i believe gmail has an equivalent) and added the mail account with my usual email address and the one time password. Everything synced up with some time and im showing 80k+ emails.

Mail won't retrieve more than 10,000 emails in IMAP account

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