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"Item could not be moved" message occurs frequently for IMAP inbox

Anonymous
2022-12-15T01:20:41+00:00

I thought that when I upgraded from Outlook 2013 on a "tired, old" Win 10 install to Outlook 365 on a "fresh, new" Windows 10 install that this issue would go away. Instead, it has gotten worse.

In the typical use case, I am reading new messages in the INBOX. (IMAP account, if that matters). Once I read a message, I can no longer delete it, even from the message window. Instead I get a pop-up window with this message.

In another use case, I can't even drag and drop a message to a different folder.

I have discovered two workarounds, but I'm sure there is a better answer. Is there a configuration problem?

Workaround 1 is to close and reopen Outlook.

Workaround 2 is to mark the message UNREAD in the inbox. This is a crazy workaround. Once I do that, the message is deleted. Is this a Microsoft software bug?

Outlook error message.PNG

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-12-15T04:15:12+00:00

    Hello Phil,

    It's not anything you are doing - it's Outlook. Outlook doesn't process the Ok from the IMAP server when it syncs the read state back to the server until you change messages.

    My solutions are to Read mail in the reading pane and don't mark it read automatically. If I do mark it read, go to the next message and move or delete the messages later.

    -- Diane

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T01:01:49+00:00

    Diane,

    Thank you. Your suggestion worked. However, I have a related problem with Office 365. For the INBOX, DRAFTS, and several other default folders, messages that are deleted still show up in the folder pane with strikethrough the preview text. I have to go to Comcast, my ISP, open up the mail web application, and click on a folder, e.g. INBOX. The web mail display shows just the undeleted messages. At this point, Outlook's preview pane also shows just the undeleted messages.

    If I delete a message using web mail, then that message is also deleted in the Outlook preview pane.

    Is this also a configuration issue? It's very frustrating. As far as I can remember, this behavior started maybe a year ago, but at that time I was still using Outlook 2013. I had hoped that the switch to Office 365 would fix this problem, but no such luck.

    Thanks again. You are a wonderful resource person for all of us Outlook users who don't have corporate IT departments.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-12-15T04:28:55+00:00

    Diane,

    Thanks for letting me know that it's an Outlook/IMAP issue.

    It sounds like there is some sort of network timing issue here. This issue started maybe six months ago, probably about the time I started noticing performance and sync issues with the Comcast IMAP server. (multiple separate issues)

    In your experience, is this issue confined to just certain ISPs?

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