sync pop3 email across multiple devices, via 3rd paty add on ??

Forums › IT Pro and developers › sync pop3 email across multiple devices, via 3rd paty add on ??

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#169697 23-Mar-2015 13:49

I know the short , best answer is use Imap or hosted exchange.....but....

Are there any 3rd party apps or services that allow pop3 email (in Outlook) to be synced to phones & tablets?
Ive had a few people wanting to do this, have their outlook inbox & sent items Folder be somehow veiwable/synced on their phone.
This is for old ISP based email adress's . eg ihug.co.nz, xtra.co.nz etc

The other issue is of course, the 5-10years worth of email in the sent items folder & in the pop3 inbox. Thats what they want access to via their smartphone .
It isnt that hard to have future incoming mail able to be downloaded to all devices, old email & sent items are the issue.

I'm reluctant to recommend IMAP, as newer versions of Outlook seems to have slightly buggy Imap support.

Dynamic

3868 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1265799 23-Mar-2015 14:02

As best I am aware you cannot upload messages to a POP server - you can get them down ut you can't push a copy up to another mailbox.

That's why IMAP was developed. And MS Exchange and GMail are further improvements on IMAP.

Encourage them to ditch the old ISP addresses and forward messages from the ISP account to their new account.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

richms

28191 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1265802 23-Mar-2015 14:04

ihug addresses support imap.

There is a way to get it on xtra with the yahoo settings that I read about a while back but never got around to trying.

Use an imap server as an archive and move it between accounts on a desktop computer, thatway the one that you are checking on mobile isnt fill of crap chewing up data and battery every time it checks it.

OUtlook seems fine for imap for me, other than being modal dialogs. Otherwise use thunderbird. That worked fine for me moving about 400 megs between my website imap and gmail imap once I started it and just left it for a couple of days.

Richard rich.ms

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1265810 23-Mar-2015 14:08

POP isn't designed for this, so whatever you do using POP will be a kludge

Consider trying to convince your customers to move away from POP3 to IMAP or Exchange ActiveSync etc

Best bet is to get them a proper email address or domain, migrate away from POP3 and use a forwarding service etc with your ISP

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1265826 23-Mar-2015 14:14

POP3 across multiple devices will always ultimately end in tears. It was never designed for this and every app that does it is nothing but a hack.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1265868 23-Mar-2015 14:40

I have setup xtra email with imap, that works fine, even though Xtra doesnt recommend or support it .

So I guess the solution, is to setup imap, & sync the existing inbox & sent items to the imap server.
Given 6GB of existing email, that may just need to be archived out . However, thats exactly what one user was expecting to sync to his phone.
He couldnt/wouldnt understand why moving the pst into the cloud simply wouldnt work.

The issue is, people still using pop3 & ihug, & wont really accept that pop3 is no longer a workable solution for what they want.
And they often refuse to move away from ISP based email.
They hear all about the cloud & expect this to all just work seamlessly.
:-(

I have seen Outlook 2013 have issues not syncing some mail folders, especially subbfolders (not created under the inbox) that the cust moved read mail into.

timmmay

20589 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1265910 23-Mar-2015 15:11

POP lets you "leave email on server". That's probably the best of the kludge solutions.

Using Thunderbird you can copy or move email anywhere you want. I've never tried having it upload to a POP server but it definitely can with an IMAP server.

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1265919 23-Mar-2015 15:15

It all comes down to how you sell it.

When people ask for this the answer is 'no I can't do that'. And then you sell them Hosted Exchange. Don't use the word 'cloud' just simply say rather than the emails sitting at your ISP's, badly maintained, server it lives at Microsoft. And if you know them to be anti-microsoft then just simply say Office 365.

By doing hacks to make things work you are prolonging the life of rubbish old technology.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1265928 23-Mar-2015 15:27

timmmay: POP lets you "leave email on server". That's probably the best of the kludge solutions.

Using Thunderbird you can copy or move email anywhere you want. I've never tried having it upload to a POP server but it definitely can with an IMAP server.

POP has no concept of sending only receiving :)

jarledb

Webhead
3257 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1265930 23-Mar-2015 15:30

One way to "solve" this would be to use Gmail and pull in the email there, and then connecting to Gmail via app or IMAP on the devices you want to use for email. An added bonus is that you will get good virus and spam filtering as well.

Jarle Dahl Bergersen | Referral Links: Want $50 off when you join Octopus Energy? Use this referral code
Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by making a donation or subscribing.

timmmay

20589 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1266053 23-Mar-2015 17:23

nathan:
timmmay: POP lets you "leave email on server". That's probably the best of the kludge solutions.

Using Thunderbird you can copy or move email anywhere you want. I've never tried having it upload to a POP server but it definitely can with an IMAP server.

POP has no concept of sending only receiving :)

POP is obviously a receiving protocol, but I wondered if there was some provision in the protocol for transferring emails to other accounts using it. Probably not.

Sounds like the OP needs to approach this differently.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1266055 23-Mar-2015 17:25

1988 I think the RFC was released for POP3

that says it all

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1266056 23-Mar-2015 17:27

jarledb: One way to "solve" this would be to use Gmail and pull in the email there, and then connecting to Gmail via app or IMAP on the devices you want to use for email. An added bonus is that you will get good virus and spam filtering as well.

Another added bonus is that web adverts you see, really will be well targeted at what you want to buy ;)

jarledb

Webhead
3257 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1266356 24-Mar-2015 01:50

nathan:
jarledb: One way to "solve" this would be to use Gmail and pull in the email there, and then connecting to Gmail via app or IMAP on the devices you want to use for email. An added bonus is that you will get good virus and spam filtering as well.

Another added bonus is that web adverts you see, really will be well targeted at what you want to buy ;)

Why do you say that?

Wade

2225 posts

Uber Geek

#1266384 24-Mar-2015 07:44

My motives were slightly different but similar desired outcome, I'm moving the family email from @xtra to gmail as we will not be with Spark forever

As it turns out Outlook 2013 seems to play fairly nice with drop'n'dragging bulk emails so I moved all our @xtra emails across into Gmail via outlook and then applied rules to move all received and sent xtra emails into respective Gmail folders. I think i pulled through about 6 years worth and it only took a day or so over VDSL. A few years ago i migrated some archives into my Gmail via same means but with Outlook 2010 and it was such a nightmare only allowing you to move a portion at a time

As long as Outlook is running it works well, we use Gmail as main email and are working through changing senders over to Gmail address moving forward

redherring

85 posts

Master Geek

#1266697 24-Mar-2015 12:23

You can do this for free with outlook.com - guide here:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/outlookcompersonaladdress.htm

I haven't used this particular guide, but have it working at home after following a similar one.