Hi @Sophie_g ,
This issue usually occurs when SuiteCRM intermittently fails to fetch or archive emails due to background job, mailbox, or configuration issues. Here’s a structured way to troubleshoot it.
Check Scheduler and Cron Setup
SuiteCRM’s email archiving depends entirely on the background scheduler.
Verify that the cron job is running every few minutes:
cd /var/www/html/suitecrm && php -f cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1
Go to Admin → Schedulers and confirm that:
“Check Inbound Mailboxes” and related jobs are Active and show recent successful runs.
No jobs are marked as failed or overdue.
If the scheduler isn’t running, SuiteCRM will simply skip email fetching.
Review Inbound Email Configuration
Go to Admin → Inbound Email and run the Test Connection.
Confirm:
IMAP hostname, port, and SSL options are correct.
“Only Fetch Unread” is disabled (messages marked read before SuiteCRM fetches them will be skipped).
The correct folder (usually INBOX) is selected.
If the mailbox was recently migrated or credentials updated, delete and recreate the inbound account to reset IMAP pointers.
Validate Outbound / Sent Archiving Settings
In Admin → Email Settings and each user’s Profile → Email Settings, ensure “Archive Sent Emails” is enabled if you need sent emails archived.
Confirm SMTP credentials are valid.
Examine Logs (Enable Debug Temporarily)
Set log_level to “debug” in config.php and reproduce the issue.
SuiteCRM 7.x Logs:
suitecrm.log (root) or /public/legacy or /logs/legacy
SuiteCRM 8.x Logs:
/var/log/prod.log or /log/prod
Web/PHP Logs:
Apache → /var/log/apache2/error.log
Nginx → /var/log/nginx/error.log
PHP → php_error.log
Look for keywords like IMAP, archiver, inbound, or timeout.
If you see “job succeeded but no fetch,” the scheduler may be skipping due to message flags or size limits.
Common Root Causes
Cron/scheduler not executing
Mailbox authentication or SSL certificate expired
PHP memory/timeout limits too low for large messages
Special characters or emojis in subjects (encoding issue)
Mailbox quota reached or IMAP server throttling requests
UIDVALIDITY change after mailbox migration (requires re-adding mailbox)
Quick Fixes
Confirm cron and scheduler are working
Re-test inbound connection and re-save credentials
Temporarily disable “Only Fetch Unread”
Increase PHP limits (max_execution_time, upload_max_filesize, etc.)
Run Quick Repair and Rebuild after config changes
Recreate inbound mailbox record if IMAP index mismatch is suspected
Related Community Threads
If you can share your SuiteCRM version (7.x or 8.x) and a short excerpt from suitecrm.log around the missed email timestamp, we can help pinpoint the exact cause.
In most cases, ensuring the cron and “Check Inbound Mailboxes” scheduler are running reliably resolves this behavior.