Zombie gmail

[TechLady]

This is a weird one. I have a client whose Gmail keeps coming back over and over no matter how many times it is deleted. I've checked all the usual suspects...IMAP settings, forwarding settings, and or course user error. I deleted several emails myself while I was with her and lo and behold, three days later they came back, the exact ones I deleted.

She originally had a sbcglobal account, and I had Gmail grab all her mail from that account in the beginning, and her sbcglobal account is set to forward to Gmail. I SHUT OFF Gmail's mail initial mail collector a long time ago. My only guess at this point is somehow that the mail collector feature we used in the beginning is somehow still functioning even though I shut it off. Otherwise, I have no idea. The client is getting pretty annoyed with all of this.

Anybody seen this before??

P.S. I should note that the ones that become zombies appear to be the ones from her sbcglobal account, which is why I was thinking maybe the mail collector has gone haywire.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Need to see headers on the original and the copy. It will give you a clue how the email is being delivered. Sounds like you have both emails set to forward to each other. Perpetual motion....

 

[TechLady]

Need to see headers on the original and the copy. It will give you a clue how the email is being delivered. Sounds like you have both emails set to forward to each other. Perpetual motion....

I know, that's what I thought too, but no. I'll see if I can get mail headers today.

 

[fencepost]

My other thought was whether there was an IMAP client connecting to her GMail account as well and loading messages back in - possibly due to the funky interactions between IMAP folders vs GMail labels.

 

[TechLady]

I figured it out. Good Lord what an incredible tangle.

She had an ATT account, and used an alias on it. One address yahoo, and the alias was att.net. Yahoo was somehow the main account (and the alias was NOT a sub-account, as ATT calls them). I was pretty sure the alias was what was creating the zombie email loop, so I go to delete it but it wouldn't let me. A blank screen just gets thrown up. So I think, well fine, we can call ATT and just have them manually kill it.

But no! It gets better. She dropped ALL ATT services years ago. She has no account with them whatsoever, only Verizon and Charter. How was she able to keep this old ATT address?? I don't know. But I can't call them, because she technically has no account anymore.

After an hour of digging I finally find a page that talks about merging the two accounts together, which would kill off the alias in the process. Great. I merge the two accounts, and voila, now her Yahoo address is a true Yahoo address and not some crap half combined into ATT. And no more alias.

Now the Yahoo address is forwarding to Gmail properly and no more zombie email.

 

[katz]

Great sleuthing on your part!