What Happens To Undelivered Emails

For a number of weeks I have been trying to contact someone by email. I have had one response. They claim because of their rural location (in the UK) that their internet connection is intermittent. However, I do not believe that would cause emails to be lost. As I understand it if I send them an email it should go to the server that is used for their incoming emails. If they cannot, at a particular time, connect to the internet it simply means they cannot access that server and read their incoming emails. Their emails should still be on the server and when they do get internet access their incoming emails should be there waiting for them to read. Am I correct? If not, could you please explain why. Thanks!

 

Your interpretation is correct. However one possible explanation for the person you are emailing not seeing your messages is that someone else knows and is accessing the addressee's server using a POP3 account. That would download any existing messages and the addressee would never get to see them. That 'other person' could even be the addressee themselves if they have also set the account up on another device, such as a phone, though in that case they would still be able to see the messages by accessing the email feature on the other device.

 

The person I'm emailing is in charge of the organisation and I don't think he'd give access to other people to be able to use his email account. That's just an educated guess. I can't know for certain. I do have a strong suspicion the intermittent internet connection is an excuse. I'm aware that many rural areas in the UK don't have a good internet service but when he does have internet access my emails should be there.

Whilst I mostly understood your explanation I'm not absolutely certain it is something with which I'm completely fluent. Would the other person accessing the emails cause them to no longer be seen or would they still be there but with a status of 'read'?

 

How long emails are kept on a server differs between providers. Also, paid for email accounts usually retain the emails longer. Lastly, it depends on the country's laws.

 

If they used a POP3 account the messages are removed from the server unless the option to leave a copy had been selected. If they use an IMAP account the messages remain on the server until manually deleted.

 

What are the differences? I have three email addresses. One's for work. The other two are personal. One I pay for and the other is a free one from my ISP. Whenever I sign in emails I've previously read are still there. I once had a Hotmail account, too, and read emails on that stayed there as well.

 

Check the server addresses for each account. That should tell you whether the account is IMAP or POP3. As I said, accessing messages with a POP3 account in an email client will normally remove the messages from the server except where the option to leave a copy on the server has been selected. Accessing messages in an IMAP account leaves the messages on the server. I have always used free email accounts and haven't had any deleted by the provider though with some providers I guess that might happen.