Why can I send but not receive emails?

I have gotten a new email account with the following details:

Email address: name@server.com

Type: IMAP

Incoming/Outgoing mail server: server.com

Username: name@server.com

Password: password

Outgoing: port 587 TLS

Incoming: port 993 SSL

I have set up an account on both Thunderbird and Outlook 2010 and have the same problem: I can send emails but not receive. When I ask the client(s) to receive emails I get no error, just a few quick messages about connecting that end with a "no new messages" message.

The fact that I can properly send emails probably means that the authentication is working (using "normal password").
The fact that both clients show the same behavior probably means it's not a client issue.
The fact that I get no error probably means that the ports and encryption protocol are set correctly (I tried to play around with these and I get connection timeouts in most cases).

Where could the problem be? How can I receive emails?

user1803551

Posted 2016-01-07T13:49:48.650

Reputation: 151

1Could it be that you don't have any mail in your inbox? – user1686 – 2016-01-07T14:02:57.217

@grawity Not unless something else isn't working. I have an unrelated and functional gmail account with which I tested. Sending from gmail to this account did not give any errors on gmail's side. Sending from the new account to gmail works fine. – user1803551 – 2016-01-07T14:06:08.143

1Well my guess here is that the messages are being held up by the receiving mail server somewhere (maybe greylisting, maybe delivery problems)... I suggest a) contacting your sysadmin, or b) trying to drag & drop some old messages from another account into your inbox, to see if the server is able to store anything at all. – user1686 – 2016-01-08T07:25:28.513

Answers

The problem was indeed on the server side. According to the admin:

The message file permissions were defaulting to server side read only for some reason.

So the fix was to lock the permissions to the right settings.

user1803551

Posted 2016-01-07T13:49:48.650

Reputation: 151

First, test the email by sending an email to yourself. If you don't receive it back, then you definitely have a problem.

Standard non-Microsoft E-mail typically uses two different protocols: an SMTP server for sending/outgoing, and an IMAP or POP3 server for receiving/incoming.

Sometimes they can be the same server, sometimes they are different. So it may be that your incoming server is incorrect (and different from your outgoing server), or the settings such as Use SSL, etc. are not correct.

Also make sure the incoming mail is using the right protocol, if your provider only supports POP3, IMAP won't work.

If you are using a free email provider you may need to pay them to get POP3/IMAP access, though if you can use their outgoing server without problems, then it's very likely a settings issue.

LawrenceC

Posted 2016-01-07T13:49:48.650

Reputation: 63 487

I have just tested sending an email from my new account to itself. Thunderbird gave me a "message sent" message, but nothing is being received. This account is on the workplace's server and was given to me by the admin. Outgoing is STMP and incoming is IMAP, though I was told that POP3 is also enabled (though I think it's usually port 110). I made sure the info I posted in the question, which is the info I was given by the admin, is the same as in the clients I set up. – user1803551 – 2016-01-07T14:17:36.007

Sounds like you're doing everything right and they gave you incorrect information. – LawrenceC – 2016-01-07T15:24:00.950

He said others didn't have this problem, but I'll recheck with him again, maybe he can look at it closer. – user1803551 – 2016-01-07T15:30:02.657

We found the problem, thanks for verifying my setup and the troubleshooting. – user1803551 – 2016-01-28T14:05:59.050