Spark to charge for all Xtramail accounts.

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark to charge for all Xtramail accounts.

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38 posts

Geek

#3207117 17-Mar-2024 11:01

OK, I'm a procrastinator.
Warned repeatedly over many years to abandon Xtra, but as I was told then, I was in the very 1st 50 nationwide to get an xtra email address when launched it became part of my dna ... anyway. Time to put the old dog down.
I am learning Thunderbird and testing on another modest size xtra email using imap to hopefully prove that profile holds everything 'off line' intact and searchable on my desktop storage pending me deleting that xtra a/c.
My own xtra email that contains my life was largely spruiked as 'unlimited' then morphed into 1tb max size.
Gmail is 15gb, Outlook is 15gb, Yahoo is 1tb. I have addresses with them all but in the interim I am progressively telling all my close pals & family my gmail address.
Trying to see how much data is used in my primary xtra a/c is eluding me.
I havn't activated it in Thunderbird yet out of fear it may overwhelm my c drive. In the end I followed sparks advice and went to one of their big stores and a friendly bloke trying to be helpful and after much effort admitted he could not get the info and escalated it up to the staff tech support and would revert to me in 48hrs. Week later, Crickets.
Decided to ask some questions here as always impressed by the geekzone talent !
If I Imap my main xtra email, is there a risk the Thunderbird profile might choke or exceed my spare default drive storage space ?
Is there any way to see my used mailbox size on xtra while I plan my strategy ?
Any other opinion or advice sincerely appreciated.

JimmyH

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#3209815 23-Mar-2024 10:54

It's irritating, as I have had an xtra.co.nz address for donkeys ages and use it for much of my serious correspondence. Now I have to change everything, which will be a pain.

Personally, I think they are making a business mistake. They aren't the cheapest provider in town, but one think that has made me a bit "sticky" as a customer is the pain in the backside it would be to notify everyone of email address changes. This change removes a key reason for me not to switch ISPs based purely on price in future. I suspect, from a customer retention standpoint, they may eventually have cause to regret this.

morrisk

364 posts

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#3209828 23-Mar-2024 12:03

I have decided to end my xtra account that I have had since the beginning of email ? 30 years so yes I have been reluctant to change as it did seem a hassle.

However have started to make the transition and day by day I am getting there and it has not been too painful.

A question that I have is that I use the Apple Mail programme on my Macbook Air and iPhone and Xtra is one of the accounts there plus now my new Gmail account and my Apple email account.

What happens to the xtra email account when I cancel my Xtra account with Spark? I know that I will get no more emails to that account but will all the existing emails and attachments stay saved on my Macbook and iPhone? Or do I have do something specific to ensure I don't lose all those existing emails?

ANglEAUT

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#3209850 23-Mar-2024 12:57

morrisk: A question that I have is that I use the Apple Mail programme on my Macbook Air and iPhone and Xtra is one of the accounts there

What happens to the xtra email account when I cancel my Xtra account with Spark? I know that I will get no more emails to that account but will all the existing emails and attachments stay saved on my Macbook and iPhone? Or do I have do something specific to ensure I don't lose all those existing emails?

Did you configure these accounts as IMAP or POP3?

With IMAP, the emails are always stored on the server & if the server goes away, the emails will go away (eventually). POP3 protocol downloads the mail from the server & stores it in your client. You can also configure Gmail to do a POP3 download of the Xtra emails & download / import them.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

networkn

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#3209903 23-Mar-2024 16:36

JimmyH:
It's irritating, as I have had an xtra.co.nz address for donkeys ages and use it for much of my serious correspondence. Now I have to change everything, which will be a pain.

Personally, I think they are making a business mistake. They aren't the cheapest provider in town, but one think that has made me a bit "sticky" as a customer is the pain in the backside it would be to notify everyone of email address changes. This change removes a key reason for me not to switch ISPs based purely on price in future. I suspect, from a customer retention standpoint, they may eventually have cause to regret this.

I think you are missing the point. They almost certainly don't want to do email so if they do it they are making it worth their while to do it.

Change to a Gmail address, forward your email, mark it a different colour as it arrives if it was originally sent to your Xtra address, remind those people to change your address and move on. You can have MFA and proper multi device sync, better spam protection and with a company who active wants to do it.

morrisk

364 posts

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#3210076 24-Mar-2024 10:59

ANglEAUT:

morrisk: A question that I have is that I use the Apple Mail programme on my Macbook Air and iPhone and Xtra is one of the accounts there

What happens to the xtra email account when I cancel my Xtra account with Spark? I know that I will get no more emails to that account but will all the existing emails and attachments stay saved on my Macbook and iPhone? Or do I have do something specific to ensure I don't lose all those existing emails?

Did you configure these accounts as IMAP or POP3?

With IMAP, the emails are always stored on the server & if the server goes away, the emails will go away (eventually). POP3 protocol downloads the mail from the server & stores it in your client. You can also configure Gmail to do a POP3 download of the Xtra emails & download / import them.

Thanks this is helpful. I recall now that some years back I changed from POP3 to IMAP so your information points me in the right direction.

old3eyes

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#3210289 24-Mar-2024 18:59

ANglEAUT:
morrisk: A question that I have is that I use the Apple Mail programme on my Macbook Air and iPhone and Xtra is one of the accounts there

What happens to the xtra email account when I cancel my Xtra account with Spark? I know that I will get no more emails to that account but will all the existing emails and attachments stay saved on my Macbook and iPhone? Or do I have do something specific to ensure I don't lose all those existing emails?

Did you configure these accounts as IMAP or POP3?

With IMAP, the emails are always stored on the server & if the server goes away, the emails will go away (eventually). POP3 protocol downloads the mail from the server & stores it in your client. You can also configure Gmail to do a POP3 download of the Xtra emails & download / import them.

Depending on you email client IMAP also stores a copy on your hard disk. I would never use POP3 because it's hard disk only and if your drive dies do does your mail.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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ANglEAUT

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#3210291 24-Mar-2024 19:25

old3eyes: Depending on you email client IMAP also stores a copy on your hard disk. I would never use POP3 because it's hard disk only and if your drive dies do does your mail.

If you keep access to your email server, for sure, but if you want to save all your emails before the server disappears so that you can access them after the server has disappeared, IMAP will not help you much.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

old3eyes

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#3210738 25-Mar-2024 18:56

ANglEAUT:
old3eyes: Depending on you email client IMAP also stores a copy on your hard disk. I would never use POP3 because it's hard disk only and if your drive dies do does your mail.

If you keep access to your email server, for sure, but if you want to save all your emails before the server disappears so that you can access them after the server has disappeared, IMAP will not help you much.

Set up a Gmail or Outlook account and copy your email folders into it. Solved. I've done it before.

Regards,

Old3eyes

forry

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3222615 25-Apr-2024 09:27

tim0001:

I'm no marketing expert, but it does appear to be an odd decision to charge for email. One of the things that stops people moving ISPs is being tied to their free email address.

I've already heard people complaining today about the charge who would not normally take much of an interest in telco matters.

I have been with the then "Telecom" for years and xtra email. Your right on point in my case. It was more of a hassle to lose my email and change providers, but not now!Time to jump ship to another ISP and ditch Spark bb as well.

I deleted my xtra email account yesterday.

Linux

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#3222618 25-Apr-2024 09:29

@forry Do not use a ISP provided email address

old3eyes

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#3222624 25-Apr-2024 10:12

Linux:

@forry Do not use a ISP provided email address

Plus 1 for that!!

Regards,

Old3eyes

PeteS

38 posts

Geek

#3222625 25-Apr-2024 10:21

A bit of a follow up to my earlier post, and with respect to the always excellent advice that this forum generates, I decided on a method that has proven successful on several elderly folks xtra email accounts I help manage.
After testing first on a late relatives xtra email that was basically being used as an archive. the post just made by 'Forry' prompted me to post this method insofar as everyone I have now helped, loyal for darn near decades to Spark have had them all wonder if the loyalty is being rewarded.
I install the free software Thunderbird on each desktop they use to access xtra email. Wow, I had heard a lot of good things over years but never tried it it. I can understand why some now use it a front end to multiple web based accounts.
Realising that Imap is technically the wrong setup, I still used that setting as a form of insurance in case things went wrong.
I created in Thunderbird 'Local Folders' a sub folder 'Inbox' and sub folder 'Sent'.
Once thunderbird had duplicated all the emails on the Xtra server, and I tested over several days the reliability of the engagement with xtra email web service by creating test emails etc, I highlighted in Thunderbird, with select all, and dragged the entire collection into the Local Folders sub folders (effectively doing what a pop3 setup would do automatically I guess).
It was so successful that in some cases we did not immediately delete the xtra account and monitored which companies despite being advised of change of address still sent emails to the old xtra address and which ones to unsubscribe from not withstanding the tsunami of spam that SMX occassionally let through.
Once proven the entire xtra email inbox and sent folder and all the sub folders that might have been created on the xtra/smx server, have now been transferred to Thunderbird and then moved to the Local Folder area. It was easy to decide after awhile to delete the Xtra email account (which does all aliases) from within Sparks email My Account area, discovering with some that it wont accept the usual login password after click on delete seems to prompt a further action required, but backing out and shutting down found it actually worked and you can no longer login to xtra email and any emails sent say from gmail to your old address gets immediately bounced.
(One of my old friends still not believing it had been deleted even went to the effort of visiting a spark shop to confirm its deletion and tell them what she thought of Spark).
I then deleted the Xtra imap account in Thunderbird leaving everything in Local folders which has a very effective search function that I truly missed after I stopped using Outlook.

As an aside, I read on some other blogs (and in the news) about a NZ tech guru, genealogy hobbyist has lost decades of research through one inadvertant click. He has my profound sympathy !

Bung

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#3222691 25-Apr-2024 10:45

PeteS: As an aside, I read on some other blogs (and in the news) about a NZ tech guru, genealogy hobbyist has lost decades of research through one inadvertant click. He has my profound sympathy !

If your entire xtra email history is only stored on 1 hard drive you are running the same risk of 1 failure losing the lot.

forry

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3222703 25-Apr-2024 11:11

old3eyes:

Linux:

@forry Do not use a ISP provided email address

Plus 1 for that!!

Noted thanks.

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