Fix an inbox that stopped syncing

Read the status badge on an inbox card, tell Sync stopped from Needs reconnecting, and use Try again, Reconnect or Force resync to get mail arriving in Nova again.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Email Accounts under Communications. The page address is /settings/communications/email-accounts. Every connected mailbox is a card on the Inboxes tab, with a status badge beside its name. When something is wrong, the badge says what kind of problem it is, and the card header shows the one button that fixes it.

Before you start

• Anyone who can open Email Accounts can read the badge and the notice. Pressing Try again, Reconnect, Update credentials or Force resync needs permission to manage mailbox connections; without it the button is greyed out and says why.
• You do not have to watch for this. When an inbox stops working, every admin of your organization and every admin member of that inbox gets a notification in the bell and an email. It names the inbox, says what is wrong and which button fixes it, and links straight to the inbox's card. When the inbox is back, the bell gets a second notice saying it is syncing again.
• Two badges look alike but mean different things:
  • Sync stopped: Nova could still sign in, but the mail provider kept returning errors, so Nova stopped checking the mailbox after repeated failed attempts. Sending from the mailbox still works, and you can still sort the mail already in Nova. New mail stops arriving until someone presses Try again.
  • Needs reconnecting: the sign-in Nova was using no longer works, usually because the password changed, access was revoked or the approval expired. Nova cannot bring in mail, send, or change anything in the mailbox until someone reconnects it.

Steps

1. Find the card whose badge reads Sync stopped or Needs reconnecting and expand it. A notice under the details says in plain words what went wrong, since when, how many attempts failed and how far mail is current. Open Technical details below the notice for the provider's own error text, if someone asks for it.
2. For Sync stopped, press Try again in the card header. Nova forgets the failed attempts and checks the mailbox once more, without pulling all the mail again. The badge changes to Syncing, then Healthy, as mail catches up. If the notice names a cause you can fix, such as a mailbox over its quota, fix that first.
3. For Needs reconnecting or Disconnected, press Reconnect and sign in to the mailbox again at the provider, as in Connect a Microsoft inbox. A mailbox connected with a username and password shows Update credentials instead; enter the new password or server details.
4. For Suspended by provider, restore access in the provider's own admin console first. If Nova still cannot bring in mail afterwards, open the ⋯ menu at the right end of the card header and choose Reconnect.
5. If the notice says live updates need reconnecting, press Reconnect live updates. Mail keeps arriving on a timer meanwhile; this makes it arrive the moment it lands.
6. If mail is missing or stuck and none of the above applies, open the ⋯ menu and choose Force resync (the header offers the same button when the notice recommends it), then confirm Force resync in the Force a full resync? window. Nova pulls the whole mailbox again from scratch. It takes a few minutes and deletes nothing.

Open Email Accounts

What you see

• The badge words: Healthy (mail is current), Syncing (Nova is bringing in mail, either the first import or a catch-up), Delayed (the last check hit a problem and Nova is retrying on its own; if the notice offers Force resync, that is the fix), Paused (updating was paused on purpose; Force resync from the ⋯ menu starts it again), Sync stopped, Needs reconnecting, Disconnected (Nova was signed out of the mailbox), Suspended by provider (the provider is refusing Nova's requests) and Archived.
• The card header shows the fix as a solid button, both when the card is folded and when it is open. Force resync, Force resubscribe and Remove inbox sit in the ⋯ menu. While the sign-in is broken, Force resync and Force resubscribe are greyed out with Reconnect this inbox first.
• Under Health & Sync, Realtime reads "Paused" followed by the badge word while the mailbox is held, and Backoff Until reads Stopped — press Try again for a stopped inbox. Sync activity opens the list of recent checks and imports.
• A notice that the provider is limiting the mailbox means the provider asked Nova to slow down. Mail catches up on its own once the pause ends; forcing a resync would make it worse.
• On the email page, a held inbox shows a notice at the top with the same words and how far mail is current. What you can still do there is in Read, reply to and sort your email and Send an email from Nova.

If something looks different

• Try again finishes but the badge soon reads Sync stopped again: the cause is still there. Read Technical details, fix it with the provider, then try again. If it keeps stopping, choose Reconnect from the ⋯ menu.
• The button is greyed out and the reason mentions permission: ask your admin, or an admin of the inbox, to press it.
• You got the notice but the card already reads Healthy: someone else fixed it, or the provider recovered on its own. The bell shows a second notice saying the inbox is syncing again.
• The badge reads Delayed for a long time: Nova is still retrying. If it turns into Sync stopped, follow the steps above.
• The badge reads Archived: the inbox was archived on purpose. Press Restore in the card header to bring it back and start syncing again.