Leave email on server for downloading with another client
I have the following constellation: Client A uses Windows10 and Outlook Client B uses Ubuntu and Thunderbird Client C uses Windows10 and Outlook All mail clients are set up to use POP3 to access the same Gmail account.
If client A downloads emails using Outlook, Client C downloads the same emails again. The same email exists on Client A and Client C. This is what is needed.
If Client B downloaded the emails from Gmail before the other clients accessed the mail account, Client A and/or Client C don't get them anymore. So the emails only exist on Client B.
How can I set up Thunderbird so that it downloads the emails but leaves them in a state that the other clients get them, too? I thought if I configure Thunderbird to leave the emails on the server that this is what will do the trick. It does leave them on the server but seems to mark them as downloaded. Can this be avoided/switched off?
If I log on to Gmail via the web front end I still see the messages in the inbox and they are marked unread.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
Peter
Modified by PeterNZ61
All Replies (10)
Yes, I believe you just have to set this option off under
Tools->Account Settings, Server Settings
iampowerslave said
Yes, I believe you just have to set this option off under Tools->Account Settings, Serversettings
Sorry I think you misunderstood. What I want is to leave the mails on the server so that they will be downloaded onto the other clients, too. So in the end every client has a copy of the email. Otherwise i end up with some emails on the ubuntu client using Thunderbird and some emails on the Windows client using Outlook.
Outlook seems to work that way. I download an email onto the WIndows client and it still gets downloaded onto the Thunderbird/Ubuntu client. So both clients have a copy.
I still tried your suggestion and it (strangely) doesn't make any difference.
Cheers
Peter
I understood exactly what you meant.
I don't know anything else. I think this should be somehow forwarded for developers to test. Since if you uncheck that box, TB downloads the e-mails and leaves them in the server. Then any other app can get them.
If you enter the webmail can you still see the e-mails that TB downloaded?
I think it would be a lot easier and more transparent if you simply set up the account as IMAP on all devices.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite
Sometimes you want to keep a real copy of the messages.
And if TB is doing something wrong it should be fixed.
I have it the IMAP way, and keep messages just in case. And backup the profile but if tomorrow your server decides to delete everything, TB check out and deletes everything too.
Everybody is believing that things just work. And I have just finished recovering personal data from a 500GB drive, full that couldn't be read but backwards.
The cloud may not work tomorrow and you want access to your data, so a local copy and backup is always good. IMAP may seem a good option but you can loose everything.
And if you have a big (many GB) mailbox IMAP isn't good enough
Modified by iampowerslave
sfhowes said
I think it would be a lot easier and more transparent if you simply set up the account as IMAP on all devices. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite
That's like saying "If it is broken don't bother to fix it, just use another one". We have our reasons why we use POP3. And shouldn't POP3 in TB work as expected?
But thank you for your answer.
Cheers
Peter
iampowerslave said
If you enter the webmail can you still see the e-mails that TB downloaded?
Yes if I go into GMAIL I see the emails sitting there in unread status. But no other client downloads them once they were downloaded using TB.
Cheers
Peter
You are having an issue, but in all honesty, this is how gmail work. They have a different approach to pop maila ccounts and the number of times an email can be popped.
They state very clearly that they only allow one pop, so if another computer tries to download something that has been left on the server then gmail will not allow the pop, but gmail do create a workaround. Have a read of this info as I believe it will resolve the issue.
Gmail users can use either POP 'normal mode' or 'recent mode' to sync their mail. If you're syncing your mail to one mail client, you should use normal mode. If you're syncing mail to a few different mail clients, then you should use 'recent mode'. Regardless of which behavior you select, any downloaded message will be marked internally as 'popped' and will not be downloaded again. https://support.google.com/a/answer/6089246?hl=en
Section: How does recent mode work?
Once you have used POP on computer 1, the email is marked as popped by gmail and then cannot be downloaded again. But gmail have a sort of workaround called 'recent mode'. Recent mode fetches the last 30 days of mail, regardless of whether it's been sent to another POP client already. Info here: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47948 section : I want to download emails on multiple email clients
Did this help?
That's how Gmail works. I agree. But I don't understand how Outlook is not getting the e-mails marked as "popped". And I believe the "recent mode" will not help but constantly download repeated messages (unless the client knows how to filter that)
Toad-Hall said
You are having an issue, but in all honesty, this is how gmail work. They have a different approach to pop maila ccounts and the number of times an email can be popped.
If it is an Gmail issue why does it then work when using Outlook on multiple clients?
Cheers
Peter