As requested (demanded) by microsoft, I have transferred my AOL email accounts from microsoft email (where the syncing to both the inbox and folders worked perfectly well, albeit slowly sometimes) to the outlook system.
Now I can only access a few of my folders and those are not up to date and new emails take so long to get through that I could not use microsoft OTPs to validate contacts.
I do not have much time or skill to "fiddle" with the system, so I will continue to use microsoft email until you contact me to tell me that it is all syncing properly.
John