I tried creating tuta mail account using the free tier for 3 months. Each time the account is locked and eventually closed.
The fist two months I signed up once on a VPN and another time using Tor. Each time I got an alert that my account was restricted until I get approval. It said to email the approve@tutao.de to request approval. I tried that but guess what, I couldn’t send any emails not even to tuta’s customer service! I read many posts all the way back to 4 years ago from people having the same issue. Most people said wait 48 hours and you get the approval. I waited and boom my email was deactivated.
I decided to try again a few days ago again on Tor. I signed up and got an error but I was logged in anyway. I don’t know what the error was it just logged me in. A new alert popped up asking if I wanted to wait for approval or fast track approval by emailing customer service. I did the fast track. It added the approve email automatically. I added the hello@tutao.de just in case. Of course, mail delivery issue for the approve email address. It doesn’t exist. The email to hello@tutao.de went through.
I went to check if they responded and I couldn’t login. I get an error Invalid Credentials using the same password I signed up with. I tried Lost Account Access and got another error Illegal key length: 32 (expected: Aes128,Aes256,128,256). Did the recovery on a different browser too. Same thing.
Tuta mail, don’t offer a free version if you can’t actually use it. Most reports I’ve seen say the problems go away once you upgrade to a paid plan. That’s deceiving. Tuta just be transparent and don’t offer a free tier. Further, if a private email service doesn’t allow you to sign up on VPN or Tor (if that’s the issue, honestly couldn’t tell you) then what’s the point?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but It seems to me that the issue comes down to how you created your Tuta account. If it’s with a a VPN and Tor, I am disappointed, but also not surprised that you are having these issues. In recent years, people have complained about how much harder it is to create a Proton account via Tor. My guess is, it is the same with more and more privacy services that don’t require a phone number for verification.
I have experienced a similar problem with MailFence. I have tried multiple times to create an account with a VPN on, and it won’t let me. It says my IP is banned and I should try later.
I have a free Tuta account that I created years ago, and that is still active. But today, it appears that unless you use a real IP and regular browser, some privacy services will flag your account, or even prevent you from creating one.
I don’t think that means Tuta should get rid of the free tier, though.
Clearly your issues are related to the fact that you are taking precautions while creating your account, which you have every right to.
I’ve seen people on reddit report constant issues especially with the free accounts. That enough was to get me to consider not buying their service and going with proton. The accessibility and use of free accounts DOES reflect on them poorly for people who are thinking of transferring to a paid account. Worse yet I see sometimes dismissive responses by Tuta on reddit (have you tried this login FAQ??) or blaming users for violating TOS when clearly it’s a pattern over at Tuta.
Tuta user of several years, for anyone thinking of creating an account on there please heed this advice, it would save you frustration with email in the long run.
Say you start amassing over 4,000 emails and want to search for something you got a month ago, what do you think Tuta is going to prompt you with? That’s right, upgrade to premium to be able to search past 30 days! they nerfed search capabilities past a month on their web version and desktop.
It gets better though, say you want to export your full inbox, can’t do it from web, you have to download their desktop app. Okay, it’s downloaded what now? let’s go try and import that EML archive into Thunderbird, wait… doesn’t work.
Thunderbird complains about no IMAP/POP protocols due to E2E. They’ve designed it in a way where it’s a pain to have a searchable inbox so that you upgrade. There is no other word for this than enshittification. This isn’t speaking to how slow search is on their web, again by design.
Thanks Tuta, I guess? I now have a greppable EML archive to pour over when I simply want to search for an email from months ago.
