Email Inactivity Policy

Email Inactivity Policy

EarthLink Email Stale Mail Policy

If you do not sign into EarthLink WebMail, MyAccount, MyEarthLink or EarthLink Portal for 90 days, we will stop delivering new messages until you access your mailbox again. A stale mail mailbox will continue to hold on to existing messages as long as it is attached to an active account.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Earthlink send to customers who haven't used their Email in 90 days?

EarthLink considers a mailbox that has not been touched in the last 90 days to be stale and will stop delivering new email to that inbox until it is accessed by the account owner.

Dear EarthLink Subscriber, 

Our records indicate that you did not access this mailbox for 90 days. In order to keep your inbox clutter-free, we stopped delivering new messages on the date this email was sent. These messages were returned to the sender. Now that you've used this mailbox, you'll start receiving messages again. To ensure that you receive email without interruption, please make sure to use this mailbox at least once every 90 days. 

For more information about this policy, please visit: https://help.earthlink.net/portal/en/kb/articles/inactive-email-account

If you have questions, you can trade real-time messages with a friendly Live Chat representative: http://support.earthlink.net/chat 

Sincerely, EarthLink Support 

************************************************************ 

This is an Administrative Message from EarthLink. It is not spam. From time to time, EarthLink will send you such messages in order to communicate important information about your subscription. 

************************************************************


What happens to my existing messages once my mailbox becomes stale?

  1. Nothing will happen to your exist email messages still on the server. A stale mailbox only prevents new messages from arriving.
What happens once a mailbox has become inactive?

  1. We will email you to let you know that your mailbox has become stale.

  2. We will no longer deliver new email messages to your mailbox

  3. When someone emails you, the mail server will send an auto response to the ISP sending the email with the following message: 550 testbogus@earthlink.net... Due to extended inactivity new mail is not currently being accepted for this mailbox.

  4. The sender's ISP may or may not forward the "not delivered" message to the sender.

I will not be accessing my email for more than 90 days and do not want my mailbox to become stale. Is there anything I can do?

  1. Activating your vacation or away message will keep your mailbox from going stale. 

    • To setup a vacation message, log into https://webmail.earthlink.net

    • Click on Preferences

    • Click on the Sending & Replying Tab

    • Scroll down and click on Vacation Message

    • Check Enabled, set your Start, End, Subject and Message options and then click Save to set your vacation message.

  2. Forwarding your Earthlink email address will keep your mailbox from going stale.

If my mailbox becomes stale, how do I refresh it so I start receiving email again?

Simply check your EarthLink email, or sign in to EarthLink Web Mail or MyAccount or Portal.

Can the messages that were sent to my stale mailbox be recovered?

No. Any email sent to your mailbox after it becomes stale is not delivered to you and cannot be recovered by EarthLink.





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