Comcast IMAP broken but their second level support said to call "the Outlook company"

[PhilBurton]

For years now, I have used Comcast as my ISP with an IMAP email account. However, in the past few weeks, my Outlook f total item folder counts for inbox, Sent items, spam, etc. do not update when I move or delete messages. The Inbox folder count even includes all those messaages that Outlook filters to the junk mail folder. The only workaround has been to connect to Outlook webmail, and refresh each folder count. Once I do that, Outlook folder counts reset accordingly. I could do some screenshots but I hope that's not needed.

Finally I called Comcast and talked with a second-level support person in their "security" department. After following her suggestions for a password change, etc. she said I needed to contact "the Outlook company." I'm not making this up. When I asked her about it, she said she did not know that Microsoft is the vendor.

At this point I'm totally flummoxed. I like to think of myself as a fairly technically skilled PC user who is mostly self-sufficient with software issues. I have been using Outlook for over 20 years now. Even though I retired several years ago, I (and my wife) continue to use Outlook 2013, which I purchased when I was still working as a consultant.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

LOL. I would normally say that is one of the worst support staff... but two clients might be able to beat that with GoDaddy. (They are migrating accounts to office 365... told one guy he needed to reconnect the account to outlook but he wanted to keep using POP and didn't know what to do. Support sent it up to level 3. He called me while he waited for GoDaddy to get back with him- all he needed to do was change the server names. The other guy was also confused as how to keep using POP.)

Which version and build of Outlook are you using? See File, Office Account for the information. You are at least the second person with this complaint - but I don't know if its outlook or comcast right now.

Did you check for sync issues? Look for the Sync issues folder in the folder list (ctrl+6). A handful a day is normal - more than maybe 20 or so is not. (You can empty the folder after you look at the sync issues for today.)

I would rename the ost file - if you have calendar, contacts, and tasks in folders named 'this computer only', export them then rename the ost file - its at %localappdata%\microsoft\outlook. Restart outlook and see if it syncs better.

 

[PhilBurton]

Diane,

It never occurred to me to look at the Sync Issues folder. How about 158 sync issues since March 29, or six a day on average. However, on April 8, I did have 20 messages.

Here is a typical issue message:

Based on your advice, I will backup the necessary files and then recreate the OST file. My calendar and contacts are in a separate OST file (because IMAP supports email only and I use four devices. Desktop and laptop running Windows 10 Pro 64, and iPhone and an iPad running iOS 15.

I may not get to this item until tomorrow but I will post back.

I guess I should be glad I don't use GoDaddy.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

6 a day is good - best guess they are either saying the send / receive was canceled or the trash folder count is out of sync - that fixes itself on the next sync.

It looks like there is a problem in the inbox. If you haven't tried making a new ost yet, turn off the reading pane and sort by size - any 0 B messages?

 

[PhilBurton]

Diane,

Sometimes "creative procrastination" works. I got diverted from this issue for family reasons.

In the meantime since my last post it seems that Xfinity is running a public beta with all of us users. I noticed a link on the website that included the word beta. And a click on the "Chat Now" button resulted in a "502 Bad Gateway" message. And clicks on the email icon resulted in a "400 bad request" message.

Today the original issue seems to be getting better. I have no problems accessing web mail and the original sync problem between webmail and Outlook seems to be fixed. That chat error message is still present.