AOL Inbox on Outlook for Mac stopped working

Question

Level 1

15 points

AOL Inbox on Outlook for Mac stopped working

Summary: I use an aol.com email address for personal email. All of a sudden--literally--the Inbox on Outlook for Mac (desktop) STOPPED showing new mail on July 25. Outbound mail is fine. The mail is working fine on my iPhone.

Details: I happened to note when on my MacPro (Outlook 2011/Yosemite) that there was nothing in my Inbox past July 25. All the mail is coming into the phone (either with the Outlook iOS, or AppleMail) just fine. Outbound not affected. This morning, at a remote location, I fired up my MacBook-Pro (Outlook 2016/High Sierra) and it did go and fetch all the mail--but once it did that on the first startup, no more mail came in. So, the situation is across two computers, two different softwares, and two operating systems. If I check my mail using the iPhone, or webmail at aol.com, all is there and fine--but Outlook on the desktop has stopped showing me the Inbox.

Help...

PS. Settings are the only ones I've seen for AOL across many sources. Incoming mail server is imap.aol.com at port 993, using SSL. Outbound is smtp.aol.com using port 587. I had no reason to change anything on either computer, but it all started this on July 25 with no changes on my end.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), MacPro 5,1 16GB RAM; 256 SSD; 2 x 1TB HD

Posted on Aug 3, 2018 11:57 AM

Reply

Answer 1

mdsalemi Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 5, 2018 4:46 AM in response to Eric Root

Hello Eric Root,

Neither setting up a different user account, nor safe mode changed anything, but I appreciate the suggestion.

If you go back to the original posting, you'll read that the problem happened all of a sudden, and on two different computers (MacPro Yosemite Outlook 2011, and MacBookPro High Sierra Outlook 2016), making either of those solutions probably specific to a problem that may exist on one computer. I should also note that my AOL mail comes in fine on Apple Mail, and on Outlook for iOS, and on Apple Mail on the iPhone. It's only the Outlook on OSX that's the issue.

If you are familiar at all with the way Outlook for OSX operates at the user level with an IMAP email account, at the lower right hand corner of the Outlook window is a line of text:

Outlook connects to all the IMAP mail accounts when Outlook is running, and when connected, indicates that on the RIGHT side of the line of text. You'll see that in this case, this is telling me I'm connected to my AOL account. Understand that sometimes you lose that connection, and it will tell you so and provide an error there.

You'll also note that on the LEFT side of that text, it says "All folders are up to date". Every x minutes by setting, Outlook checks all the IMAP folders, POP3 Accounts, etc, and fetches new mail or syncs as the case may be. In that case, that line changes to "Sync pending for this folder" and when complete, changes to the "All folders are up to date".

Now, for my situation that just started, the AOL inbox SAYS its up to date, but it WILL NOT sync. In fact, if you manually go and get the mail (or sync) by hitting Tools-->Send/Receive or Option-K, absolutely nothing happens on this folder--it doesn't even try to sync; you do NOT get the brief line saying "Sync Pending for this folder". It does indeed sync on all other folders on all other email accounts, INCLUDING the AOL Sent Items folder--just not the Inbox.

A friend suggested that maybe I reached some threshold of "too many items" in the Inbox. If that had been the case, I'm certain AOL might have told me so, but they didn't. Nonetheless, I went to the AOL email account on webmail and deleted several hundred emails and that didn't change a thing.

So, I'm at a total loss as to why Outlook (in two versions, on two operating systems on two computers) would simply stop syncing to just the Inbox on just AOL mail. My Gmail and Outlook365 mail accounts work fine.

Reply

Answer 2

mdsalemi Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 8, 2018 9:01 AM in response to mdsalemi

Well, I sort of figured out and solved my issue. Doesn’t explain it, and doesn’t explain what change there was that created the issue, but nonetheless here’s it is.

On the setup for AOL mail by IMAP, they provide a default set of folders: Inbox, Draft, Sent, Trash, Bulk, Archive, Drafts, Notes, Saved, Spam. When you add an AOL IMAP account to Outlook, they are there, like this:

Well, some time ago, I created a subfolder within the INBOX (nested, as it were) and created a rule such that mail from a certain group of people would end up there. I created this subfolder in Outlook, and this synchronized back to the AOL server. It functioned without issue for some time. Note, I also have the same setup on another email Inbox (Exchange, not IMAP) and a second Inbox (POP3, not IMAP) and these have worked perfectly for years, all on the same Outlook 2011 for Mac. The subfolder (it’s now gone in the screen shot above) for the AOL account worked fine until July 25. At that point, nothing synced on the INBOX side, but it did take me some days to notice that. Most of my mail is initially read on the iPhone, and the problem did NOT manifest itself there, nor on AOL webmail, nor on Outlook for iOS. Just on the desktop version.

So, just out of curiosity today, I went to webmail on aol.com, moved all the messages in the Inbox subfolder back up into the Inbox parent, then deleted the subfolder. Now, only one Inbox, no nested subfolders.

...and that solved the problem. All the mail started syncing and function is back to normal. For some reason, the AOL IMAP setup on Outlook can no longer handle nested folders in an Inbox, as of July 25. Why? That I cannot tell you.

Reply

Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

Aug 4, 2018 10:16 AM in response to mdsalemi

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

Safe Mode - About

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

Reply

Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

148,423 points

Aug 3, 2018 12:57 PM in response to mdsalemi

On both the Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro, if you use the Mail app, instead of Outlook, with this AOL email account, does the problem still exist? If not, then the issue, is most likely, with Outlook (both versions) using AOL mail.

On the other hand if the issue persists with the Mail app, then there may be a configuration issue (not necessarily the email account settings) on both of these Macs.

Reply

Answer 5

mdsalemi Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 3, 2018 2:17 PM in response to Tesserax

I never really used the Macintosh Mail app, only Outlook. Until the date noted it has worked fine--never a problem.

I did add the AOL account to MacMail today on the laptop, and the Inbox shows up normally. I was pretty certain the problem is with Outlook and Aol on the Mac, but trying to see if anyone else has seen this issue and addressed it. Somewhere, something changed on or about July 25 and I doubt it was with me. So, surely I cannot be the only one having this problem.

Using Apple Mail isn't a solution to the problem, just a workaround.

Reply

Answer 6

Tesserax

Level 10

148,423 points

Aug 3, 2018 2:25 PM in response to mdsalemi

Using Apple Mail isn't a solution to the problem, just a workaround.

I didn't suggest that it would be a solution. I just wanted to help you narrow down the "list of suspects" which is looking more like Outlook's dealings with AOL mail than anything else. Hopefully, someone else here at the ASC that uses both Outlook as their email client and AOL as their email provider has experienced this and can provide you with what they did to solve it. Good luck!

... and, if you haven't already, you may want to visit the Microsoft Office Support site's forums or FAQs to see if this issue appears there as well.

Reply

Answer 7

mdsalemi Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 3, 2018 2:56 PM in response to Tesserax

I did post a nearly identical question on the MS Office Support Forums, but no replies yet. I was also going to post it on an AOL support forum but I don't think they exist--just some kind of "tell us on Facebook and Twitter" stuff, which I don't use.

I've seen some pretty bizarre stuff in years past...in fact, when I moved full time from a PC to a Mac in 2011, I had signed up for a domain name at GoDaddy. And, believe it or not (probably forgotten history now) at that time there was an issue with using "Apple Mail with Yosemite on GoDaddy email servers" and when you did that, your main memory would get used up in seconds. GoDaddy stopped offering their own email (in lieu of Office365), and once I moved my domain name hosting away from GoDaddy the problem stopped. Many people were experiencing the same problem so hopefully an answer should pop up here. I just don't understand how and why it happened "all of a sudden"...

Maybe it's time to retire the AOL account.

Reply

Answer 8

Sep 14, 2018 5:29 PM in response to mdsalemi

I have been having this EXACT same problem with Outlook and ONE of my aol accounts (the other ones are working fine in Outlook 2011 and Outlook 2016) and it started at around the same time as your problem (July 18th for me). When I delete the account and re-add it, everything works fine except for my inbox. I use the same settings across all of my devices. Email is coming in fine on all of my other devices for this account. So frustrating.

Reply

Answer 9

Sep 17, 2018 2:58 AM in response to mdsalemi

I'm not on a Mac, but I suddenly started having the same issue with my AOL account on Outlook. Everything synced okay, except the Inbox. I tested your fix, deleting all the subfolders I had created and it suddenly started working. So frustrating but at least it syncs now. Thank you for figuring this out

Reply

Answer 10

Sep 20, 2018 12:42 PM in response to mdsalemi

Identical issue here. AOL inbox stopped working on Outlook 2011 on MacBook Air the day before yesterday despite notification "all folders are up to date". I deleted any folders created with an Outlook rule on Outlook. Here's what's driving me nuts. I went to the mail.aol.com to delete any subfolders. Outlook then syncs fine. An hour later, every folder I deleted reappears on mail.aol.com and Outlook stops working. There is no issue receiving AOL on iphone or ipad.

I've done soft restart, hard restart, power down, account delete, empty trash etc. on the MacBook Air with no luck.

My workaround is to use Apple Mail for AOL on the Macbook.

Any help appreciated.

Reply

Answer 11

BGunson

Level 1

4 points

Sep 24, 2018 9:56 AM in response to CDDonahue

We have two MacBook Airs (macOS Sierra nd macOS High Sierra) and the same problem with my wife's AOL account no inbox despite deleting, reinstalling and using mac outlook for mac 2011 and the latest 365. All other folders present but no inbox. Inbox available on iPhone Se and even my vintage iPad 2.

Solution:

Went onto web AOL and deleted all AOL subfolders except archive (which wouldn't delete). Now loading the inbox. Happy days!

Reply

Answer 12

Sep 26, 2018 11:40 AM in response to mdsalemi

SAME. I moved everything from subfolders to inbox, deleted the subfolders and ONLY then did my email come through. Mine too was saying folder was up to date when it was EMPTY. What is going on???? I NEED my subfolders back!!!!

Reply

Answer 13

sethc5

Level 1

4 points

Sep 26, 2018 9:22 PM in response to mdsalemi

I had the exact same problem start yesterday, September 25th, for my AOL email account in Outlook 2016 on a Surface Pro 4: Outlook inbox and its sub-folders were empty and can't receive emails, but Outlook can send emails; all Outlook settings are correct; AOL email account on iPhone and AOL Mail accessed on the web work fine.

I spoke to AOL tech support, explained the issue, and told them about the solution described here: on AOL Mail, move the emails from the folders shown as Outlook Inbox sub-folders (but shown as folders, not sub-folders on AOL Mail) into the AOL Mail Inbox then delete the AOL folders.

AOL came up with another solution: using AOL Mail (accessed via Chrome on my PC), we renamed each of the folders shown in Outlook as Inbox sub-folders by hovering over the folder's name, clicking on the gear symbol, editing the name, and clicking save (we simply added 1 to the end of each folder's name). Then clicked Send/Receive in Outlook. Outlook created matching folders (not sub-folders) for the renamed AOL folders (which were the old Outlook Inbox sub-folders) and populated them with their respective emails. Then the Outlook Inbox repopulated and began to receive emails again. Please note, you cannot make this work from Outlook by moving the Inbox sub-folders out of the Inbox, you have to change the name of the folder in AOL Mail. This solved the problem and kept the folders intact.

I asked AOL tech support to alert the technicians at AOL Mail that they have a mapping problem with Outlook sub-folders. Hopefully they'll fix it. I'll follow up if the fix here stops working. Please let me know if the instructions above were clear.

Reply

Answer 14

2Pipers

Level 1

8 points

Oct 2, 2018 9:59 AM in response to mdsalemi

I had a problem where emails deleting on my Mac was not deleting on the iPhone (AOL mail accounts).

Fix: On Mac, deleted and re-added the aol email account. NOTE IMPORTANT: you may get an account cannot be verified error message if you use your regular aol email password. You have to log into your aol email account from the web (aol.com), sign-into your account, then under security/passwords generate a specific password for the MAC app. This may be because I have two-factor turned on, - not sure. But without this, you cannot add your email account on the MAC. Now all is fixed again. If I delete the email from either the MAC or the Iphone, it is in sync.

This issue started to happen after I upgraded to High Sierra.

Reply

Answer 15

Oct 5, 2018 8:24 AM in response to mdsalemi

Thank you so much for this suggestion. I have been very frustrated by this issue for the past 3 days. Even Microsoft support could not fix the issue. However once I deleted the sub folders all my mail reappeared immediately.

Regards,

Seán O'Leary

Reply

AOL Inbox on Outlook for Mac stopped working

Similar questions