10minemail What happens when the inbox expires
When the ring on the homepage hits zero, the inbox is not “archived.” It is gone from the process that was serving it. This page is the literal version of that sentence, because “temporary” on the internet often means “we kept a copy.”
I did not want a copy.
What exists while the timer runs
An inbox on 10minemail is an in-memory record keyed by a random token. It holds:
- the issued address (
name@profemail.co.uk) - created and expiry timestamps
- copies of messages we have already fetched
- a set of message IDs we have already seen, so we do not push duplicates
Your browser stores the token in localStorage so a refresh during the countdown still shows the same box. The live tab holds a Server-Sent Events connection so new mail can be pushed without a reload.
Catchmail still has whatever it has for that mailbox until their side expires or deletes it. We are not Catchmail’s backup service. We fetch to display, then we drop our copy when our timer ends.
What the sweeper does
A background interval walks every inbox. If now is past expiresAt, we destroy it: remove the token mapping, remove the address mapping, end any open live connections. After that, an API call with the old token returns “not found or expired.”
+10 min only adds ten minutes to expiresAt on a box that still exists. It cannot resurrect a destroyed one.
New address destroys the current box immediately and issues another. That is a manual expire. Use it when you finished a task or when a form hated the name. Do not use it as a refresh button on the same signup.
What we cannot restore
We cannot restore codes, magic links, attachments, or headers. If you email hello@10minemail.online and ask us to look up last Tuesday’s inbox, the honest answer is that it is not there. Privacy requests about an expired box have nothing to retrieve.
That is inconvenient if you missed a code. It is also why a forgotten throwaway cannot leak in a future breach of this server’s disk. There is no pile of old mail here to steal.
If you needed the message later, the mistake happened at paste time. Use a real mailbox next time. When not to use temp mail.
What still exists after expiry
- Your visitor cookie, if you have not cleared it — used to count unique browsers, not to reopen mail.
- The cookie-notice flag in localStorage.
- Server logs for a limited operational window (IP, user agent, URL) as described in the privacy policy.
- Anything the sender kept: their list, their logs, their ESP. We cannot delete their copy of “we sent a code to jane.morris@…”
Expiry is local to this service. It is not a GDPR eraser for the rest of the internet. It is a stop on our holding of the message copies.
Why people think we “must have it”
Consumer mail trained everyone to believe in search, trash folders, and 30-day undo. A 10-minute inbox is closer to a phone call. When it ends, there is no recording unless you made one.
If you need a recording, you needed Gmail.
How to not lose the only copy
Keep the tab visible until you have copied the code or clicked the link you intended to click. If the ring is low and the sender is slow, extend before zero. If you got what you needed, you can close the tab and let the rest burn.
Do not screenshot passwords and store them in a chat. Do copy a one-time code into the form it was meant for, then let it die.
Extending is not immortality
You can extend more than once. Each click is ten minutes. If you extend for two hours, you still have an in-memory public-ish mailbox for two hours. That is a longer paper cup, not a filing cabinet. Why ten minutes is enough is the design argument for keeping the default short.
The token after death
Your browser may still hold pobox10_token after expiry. The next load will find the token invalid and issue a new inbox. That is expected. Stale tokens are not a backdoor.
If you copy the token somewhere “just in case,” you are trying to build an account. Please do not. Tokens are session handles, not logins.
Mail that arrives after zero
If a sender is late and our sweeper already ran, the message may still exist briefly at Catchmail, but we will not show it: there is no inbox record to attach it to. We will not poll a dead token. That late mail is not recoverable here. Request a new code into a living address.
When the inbox expires, the product has done the thing it promised. Missed the code? Request a new one from the sender into a new 10minemail address, or switch to a real mailbox if the task was never a one-off. Open the inbox only when you can stay until the job is finished.