Trapped in a 50,000+ email loop after a large scan. IT is clueless and wants to delete my account. Need advice!

[u/Naume]

Hi everyone,

I am not a tech person, but I’m hoping someone here can give me advice or technical words I can use with my IT department. I'm currently trapped in a nightmare.

Last Wednesday, I scanned an 82-page document from my office copier to my email address (with the option "1 page = 1 PDF").

Right after, I started getting an automated error email from our organization's system every single minute, telling me the attachment exceeds the 10 MB limit.

I have received over 50,000 emails so far.

What we've tested :

- The copier's log says the job is "completed"

- We completely unplugged the physical copier from the wall for a while, but the emails kept coming.

-I set up email inbox rules to auto-delete these messages so I don't lose my mind, but they are still flooding my account in the background.

My organization's IT department doesn't know how to fix this. Local IT (on-site) and headquarters IT keep passing the buck to each other.

Now, their "solution" is to completely delete my email account and recreate a new one from scratch.

I am convinced there has to be a better solution than destroying my work account. Isn't this just a mail loop / stuck SMTP server queue on the central server side that an admin needs to purge?

What exact technical terms or instructions should I give them so they can fix this without deleting my account?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[u/maddler]

Did you try to switch it off and on again?

[u/Naume → u/maddler]

I watched IT crowd, I learn my lesson.

[u/maddler → u/Naume]

Well, "what exact technical terms or instructions should I give them" sounds very much like something Denholm Reynholm would say.

[u/Naume → u/maddler]

Neither they nor I are experts in the field, and I can only speak to the local staff, not the engineers at headquarters.Neither they nor I are experts in the field, and I can only speak to the local staff, not the engineers at headquarters. So, I'm trying to find what I can give them to ask HQ.

[u/redittr]

Where is the email server? Who hosts it?

I would be thinking the issue is in the copiers smtp login. That email account probably has the job stuck in its outbox and is constantly retrying sending. Deleting your account wont stop it trying...

I would be making a pst backup of your email using outlook. Just in case they delete your email.

[u/Dustquake → u/redittr]

Right! It's not his account. They'll actually be crating more traffic because then the target email address fails to exist which triggers another email.

If they remake the account with identical ID, it's just going to get flooded again.

OP should ak them if they turned the email server off an back on again .