Windows 10 Mailbox woes

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arcon

423 posts

Ultimate Geek

#240501 11-Sep-2018 11:10

New PC arrived with Windows 10 installed - the Mail app is an abomination. A gmail account worked ok... however setting up an xtra pop3 account lol, advanced setup is apparently a "success" but it just can't receive mail, just says "fetching" forever. Sent emails sit in the Outbox forever and don't get sent, sync settings are always greyed out & unclickable.

I have been using Thunderbird for 10+ years because its a non-retarded program which actually throws specific errors if something is set incorrectly. However I have it installed on a Win 10 Dell laptop and it doesn't always load for some reason... a real shame.

What is the most reliable mail app for Windows 10? Preferably something that has NOT been dumbed down in terms of configuration & feedback like Mail. Also it would be great if I could import Tbird profiles or drag in individual eml files.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#2087496 11-Sep-2018 13:44

Outlook is the standard for Email.
Otherwise Thunderbird. Keep in mind Tbird & other email programs are too hard to migrate old email to a different program.

It could be you have 10 years worth of old email stored on xtras servers , and all that needs to be downloaded . If so it will be causing issues with timeouts/sync etc as it trys to downlaod
years of old email, fails & starts from the beginning again. You may need to just leave it downloading overnight before email becomes usuable.
Or set imap to only sync 3 months
Ive seen that many times with new PC's. Sometimes you need to get all the old email removed from xtras server before it works , especially if on ADSL or slow internet.

Otherwise If both Tbird & the win email app are causing issues, I would suspect its the laptop itself, or the settings used.
Delete the email a/c from the app/program & set up manually
try pop3 rather than imap (or vice versa)

Is 10 full updated to 1803 , and all Win updates installed . Stuck/failing updates can cause weird issues as it continually re-tries
try connecting via network cable rather than wifi
DECRAPIFY that laptop. Uninstall all the preloaded crap that comes with new laptops ie programs preinstalled by the manufacturer
uninstall any 3rd party AV & firewall

arcon

423 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2087645 11-Sep-2018 16:04

1101:

Outlook is the standard for Email.
Otherwise Thunderbird. Keep in mind Tbird & other email programs are too hard to migrate old email to a different program.

It could be you have 10 years worth of old email stored on xtras servers , and all that needs to be downloaded . If so it will be causing issues with timeouts/sync etc as it trys to downlaod
years of old email, fails & starts from the beginning again. You may need to just leave it downloading overnight before email becomes usuable.
Or set imap to only sync 3 months
Ive seen that many times with new PC's. Sometimes you need to get all the old email removed from xtras server before it works , especially if on ADSL or slow internet.

Otherwise If both Tbird & the win email app are causing issues, I would suspect its the laptop itself, or the settings used.
Delete the email a/c from the app/program & set up manually
try pop3 rather than imap (or vice versa)

Is 10 full updated to 1803 , and all Win updates installed . Stuck/failing updates can cause weird issues as it continually re-tries
try connecting via network cable rather than wifi
DECRAPIFY that laptop. Uninstall all the preloaded crap that comes with new laptops ie programs preinstalled by the manufacturer
uninstall any 3rd party AV & firewall

The laptop has Tbird which has no mail problems, only issues with the program starting sometimes.

The problems with Win10 Mail are on a new PC. It has all updates, connected over wifi to gigabit fibre, no probs with the wifi. The xtra account was a pop3 account which had never been set to leave mail on server. In any case you can't change sync settings in Mail when using a pop account, so that is not an option.

EDIT: So Outlook 2016 costs $200...? for a single PC...? Yeah @#$% that.

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2087648 11-Sep-2018 16:16

I never touch the built in mail client, it's a mess. Thunderbird is my free client of choice. Works with OAuth too, MS can't even manage to get that working with Outlook yet.

bigalow

566 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2087703 11-Sep-2018 17:58

i use Thunderbird with no problems with win 10

ANglEAUT

2329 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2087785 11-Sep-2018 20:06

arcon: ... EDIT: So Outlook 2016 costs $200...? for a single PC...? Yeah @#$% that.

Depends on where you buy it from & what you need. Microsoft Office 365 Home for 5 PCs/Macs + 5 tablets for one household 32-bit/x64 English Subscription 1Year

Have you tried to review the start up & crash logs of Thunderbird? Any errors in the Windows Eventlog when it doesn't start? Are you sure you double-clicked the icon? Did you run a repair on your inbox? Maybe an index is faulty? Checked for hard drive failures?

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

ANglEAUT

2329 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2087786 11-Sep-2018 20:15

arcon: ... What is the most reliable mail app for Windows 10? Preferably something that has NOT been dumbed down in terms of configuration & feedback like Mail. Also it would be great if I could import Tbird profiles or drag in individual eml files.

While I would recommend Proton Mail in a web browser, the wisdom of the crowd can help you.

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

arcon

423 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2087797 11-Sep-2018 20:34

Thanks for all the responses guys. I think I will use Tbird on the new PC, and see if it develops any execution issues like the laptop. If not then the laptop must have some sort of config issue which I will work out from there. Will probably update thread in a few days when I find out what's going on.

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richms

28218 posts

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#2087811 11-Sep-2018 20:52

Back when I used thunderbird the not opening problem was the updater thing in it having a bad day, antivirus software seemed to cause its problems.

Richard rich.ms

Jogre

182 posts

Master Geek

#2088001 12-Sep-2018 09:07

I tend to shiver inwardly whenever someone mentions POP email and/or xtra email after the recent fun-times with Yahoo hosting.

I personally don't have any issues with W10 mail app, I've never hated myself enough to add xtra on there, just Gmail and Outlook.com primarily and the odd 365 account without MFA enabled.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
18668 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2088082 12-Sep-2018 10:33

I tried Thunderbird in the distant past but didn't like the UI. On my Win 10 laptop I have used Live Mail (Essentials) without problem for the past few years. I know everything that has been said about it but I haven't had issues. I have multiple accounts set up and they work fine, though my email traffic is light. Although this stopped being supported in 2012, there is nothing to prevent you downloading and installing it. There does seem to be some difference between different versions available for download. What has worked well for me is WLsetup-all.exe. I think this contains the full international language pack. Regionalised versions would not install on my system, possibly because of my language settings.

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