COX Email platform upgrade status & issues: [FINAL UPDATE: 01/05/2018]

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spc3rd
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COX Email platform upgrade status & issues: [FINAL UPDATE: 01/05/2018]

Post by spc3rd »

[For COX COMMUNICATIONS Email users]

(This Sticky originally created on May 19, 2017)
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[FINAL UPDATE for this topic on: 01/05/2018 at 4:30 a.m. (U.S. EST), as follows]:

This will be the FINAL update to this topic, as most Cox email subscribers' accounts should now be updated.
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[OVERVIEW]

Cox has been in the process of upgrading its email platform since mid-December 2016. According to Cox Tech Support (per phone conversation on June 12, 2017), the current projected completion date of this upgrade for all Cox email users is by the end of this year (2017). The upgrade is being rolled-out gradually, in part due to a number of significant problems with the upgrade process which Cox is working to resolve.

[SIDENOTE #1]: Cox Tech Support continues to recommend its email users set-up their accounts as IMAP, rather than POP3.
(For help in this regard, please review this Sticky topic: COX Email: How to set-up an IMAP account).

[SIDENOTE #2]: Cox also recommends its email users NOT change or delete their primary account. Doing so can result in significant problems occurring, such as, being unable to edit/remove any secondary accounts you may have.

[REMINDER]: The [Oauth2] option is not presently available for Cox IMAP email accounts.
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[UPGRADE CHANGES AND ISSUES BEING ENCOUNTERED]

(1). The most obvious change Cox email users will first notice is the appearance of the Inbox user interface, when you log-in to your account via your browser.
The present (classic) interface most users see is shown below:
Current CLASSIC  interface
Current CLASSIC interface
(Click image to enlarge)

(2). As your Cox email accounts are upgraded, the new Inbox interface you will see, when logging-in via your browser, is displayed below.
NEW upgraded interface
NEW upgraded interface
(Click image to enlarge)

(3). Be aware that as your accounts are upgraded, you may experience issues with POP Peeper being unable to access the upgraded account to retrieve or send messages. POP Peeper may begin displaying an "AUTHENTICATION FAILED" error message on every mail check attempt. One reason this occurs is described in Items # 4 & 4a below. *(You may receive the same error message, or a different one).

(4). One major issue their system upgrade is having - involves email account PASSWORDS being unable to accept the use of special characters (e.g., * & ^ % # @ !).

[4a] In my own case, Cox Tech Support had to change my account password, from their end, to a new password which did NOT include any special characters in it. (Problems were encountered when I tried to change the password on my end). After changing the account password in POP Peeper to the new one, PP was able to successfully access the account.

[4b] As this upgrade continues, POP Peeper may display a "Server disconnected unexpectedly" or "Account temporarily unavailable" error message for 1 or more of your accounts when it does a mail check of the account.
[This can also occur when disabling POP Peeper's Global Auto-check function].
These error messages normally clear on a subsequent mail check.

In addition to the above, if you attempt to log-in to the affected account(s) via your browser on-line, a blank white page may be displayed with the following message in the upper left corner:

503 Service Error
No Server available to handle this request


[UPDATE NOTE - Items # 3 and 4b]: Cox appears to have addressed the issue(s) associated with the error messages described in the aforementioned items above, as I have not observed them occur again since September 17, 2017.

(5). [Additional issues noted & to be aware of]

[5a]: When a Cox message is READ in PP (or just marked as "Read"), the message in the Cox account Inbox (on-line) may NOT be shown as "Read". It will continue to be displayed in bold font (and with a *closed* envelope icon beside it), indicating it has not been read.

[5b]: For users with multiple Cox accounts where only the primary account has been upgraded, if you try to edit or remove one of your other (i.e., secondary) accounts which have NOT yet been upgraded, you may experience issues. (E.g., the system will either not allow you to do so, or after clicking on the "EDIT" or "REMOVE" links, all you may see is a small icon which just continues spinning in a circular motion on the screen without displaying any account information).

* In the above situation (Item 5b), you will need to contact Cox Tech Support for assistance.

[5c]: I have also observed that (in an upgraded account), Cox will, at times, erroneously classify a legitimate email as spam, and place it in the Spam folder - even if other emails from the same Sender have been previously marked as safe. Thus, when PP performs a mail check of the account, it will not retrieve that email since it is in the Spam folder.
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Additional information regarding this upgrade can also be found on the Cox website at the following link:

https://www.cox.com/residential/educati ... email.html

Given the numerous problems occurring during this upgrade process - it is strongly-recommended that you contact Cox Tech Support in your service area for more in-depth assistance, should you experience issues similar to those described herein, or a new problem arises.

Best regards,
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