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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > Retrieving POP sent mail on iPhone?

Retrieving POP sent mail on iPhone?
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kylef
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Jun 27, 2010, 08:37 AM
 
Hi

My dad's just upgraded to a 3GS, but he uses some essential e-mail accounts that unfortunately are POP only. He still has his old 3G which has all the old sent mail. Is there any way to retrieve this, be it through iTunes or another application? (PhoneView doesn't seem to do it).

Thanks in advance.

Edit: or transfer it to another iPhone.
( Last edited by kylef; Jun 27, 2010 at 10:06 AM. )
     
mduell
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Jun 27, 2010, 12:35 PM
 
I suppose you could forward them all to yourself. Pretty painful. Time to upgrade to IMAP; it's only been the clear leader for what, 15 years now?
     
ghporter
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Jun 27, 2010, 01:28 PM
 
Assuming the service you use/must use supports it, IMAP is THE way to go. But there are a lot of services, and a lot of companies, that do not support IMAP for whatever reason.

With a POP account, you have relatively few options, as the way POP works limits you. I went for a long time with POP, using Outlook at work because those were what was given to me to use. And I used Outlook's ability to save emails in a personal mailbox in order to archive the messages. I can't imagine using a POP account ONLY on an iPhone or other mobile device though-iPhone Mail does not seem to have any way to archive anything, so you're pretty much stuck with what's on the phone, and mduell's advice is pretty much the best thing to do. It's a PITA, but workable.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Cold Warrior
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Jun 27, 2010, 01:33 PM
 
Sync it up to OS X's Mail app, then set up an IMAP account there too. In Mail move/copy the sent items to the IMAP sent folder. This saves the sent messages; now you just have to migrate him to IMAP.
     
kylef  (op)
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Jun 27, 2010, 01:39 PM
 
Unfortunately, we're talking hundreds of mails. The servers don't support IMAP so he's stuck with POP for this particular account.
@Cold Warrior - iTunes warns me that "syncing Mail accounts syncs your account settings, but not your messages."
     
mduell
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Jun 27, 2010, 01:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by kylef View Post
Unfortunately, we're talking hundreds of mails. The servers don't support IMAP so he's stuck with POP for this particular account.
Going forward you could proxy them through a service that does support IMAP, like Gmail. Gmail checks the POP accounts, then the iPhone checks the Gmail account via IMAP.
     
kylef  (op)
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Jun 27, 2010, 01:59 PM
 
That's actually a great idea, thanks.
     
Cold Warrior
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Jun 27, 2010, 02:10 PM
 
But it won't pull the email from your iPhone's POP sent folder.

Sign up for and set up an IMAP account. On your iPhone you can select the messages you want, then use Move. You'll get a pop-up list. In the top left, press Accounts and nav to your IMAP account and its folders list. You may be able to move those messages from the local iPhone to the IMAP account, which will then become available in the 'cloud'.

I don't have POP set up on my iPhone running iOS 4, but it works from activesync to IMAP (but not the other way around).
     
turtle777
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Jun 27, 2010, 02:15 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
But there are a lot of services, and a lot of companies, that do not support IMAP for whatever reason.
Really ? A lot ?

I doubt it.

I think most customers are just too lazy / clueless to use IMAP.

Yes, some of the "free" email providers would charge you extra for IMAP, but that's be worth it.

Just imagine the pain if you lose all your email because it was downloaded to only one device, w/o backups.

-t
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 27, 2010, 03:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Really ? A lot ?
Really.

A lot.
     
turtle777
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Jun 27, 2010, 03:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Really.

A lot.
What kind ?

I mean, GoogleMail offers it for free, so does Hotmail, FastMail, GMX and many others.

So, what's the point of using a freemail provider that's 15 years behind the curve ?

Really.

-t
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 27, 2010, 04:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
What kind ?

I mean, GoogleMail offers it for free, so does Hotmail, FastMail, GMX and many others.
GMX, for one, does not.

Edit: Neither does Hotmail.

Neither does my current employer, nor my former employer, nor a number of other companies that friends of mine work for.
     
turtle777
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Jun 27, 2010, 04:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
GMX, for one, does not.

Neither does my current employer, nor my former employer, nor a number of other companies that friends of mine work for.
According to this, GMX has free IMAP:
Top 17 Free Email Services - About Email

Re: employer email NOT IMAP ? What ?
That's even more retarded than using Lotus Notes.

Besides, an employer that offers only POP3 surely doesn't support you using a mobile device to download Emails.

-t
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 27, 2010, 04:10 PM
 
Well, I've had my gmx account for over ten years, and IMAP has ALWAYS been (and still is currently, as per their homepage) a PAID option.

At least in Germany.

And when did Hotmail start supporting anything beyond complete hacks to retrieve mail?
     
turtle777
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Jun 27, 2010, 04:31 PM
 
Fastmail FTW.

-t
     
ghporter
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Jun 27, 2010, 06:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Really ? A lot ?

I doubt it.

I think most customers are just too lazy / clueless to use IMAP.

Yes, some of the "free" email providers would charge you extra for IMAP, but that's be worth it.

Just imagine the pain if you lose all your email because it was downloaded to only one device, w/o backups.

-t
My ISP is AT&T; they do not support IMAP (at least that I've been able to find) for my account. Period. Lots of employers, schools, and other providers go with POP as well, because it's free and easy to set up.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
besson3c
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Jun 27, 2010, 06:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
My ISP is AT&T; they do not support IMAP (at least that I've been able to find) for my account. Period. Lots of employers, schools, and other providers go with POP as well, because it's free and easy to set up.

IMAP is just as free and easy to setup, the reason why some providers don't offer it is because it is more expensive to store email for people, performing IMAP syncs can be computationally expensive (especially with misbehaving clients such as OS X Mail), running a Webmail service and supporting other things you can do with IMAP (account migrations, use with mobile devices, etc.) is more expensive to provide from a customer support standpoint, and then there is the issue of backups (whether to provide them, how to make it clear to customers that there is no backup if this is the case, etc.) There is a common misconception that the offline cache is a backup, not really...

POP is brain dead simple, but it is also brain dead.

I've been tempted to provide my own mail services for a while now, I already do so for my current clients, the next step might be to do something like what Fastmail is doing. Do you think that there is some demand for paying for IMAP service in exchange for complete privacy in relative comparison to, say, GMail?
     
asxless
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Jun 27, 2010, 09:29 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
My ISP is AT&T; they do not support IMAP (at least that I've been able to find) for my account. Period. ....
Exactly. The EXCLUSIVE provider of iPhones in the US does not support IMAP email accounts. And the iPhone really, really works a lot better with IMAP. :What's wrong with this picture

To the OP: Going forward your dad can set up a BCC to a IMAP Email account to capture sent massages. But AFAIK getting his existing sent messages off his iPhone is going to be tedious and painful

asxless in iLand

p.s. the iPhone's Mail client needs to be fixed so that sent messages can be archived onto a real computer.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 28, 2010, 01:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by asxless View Post
Exactly. The EXCLUSIVE provider of iPhones in the US does not support IMAP email accounts. And the iPhone really, really works a lot better with IMAP. :What's wrong with this picture
What's wrong with this picture is that People are dumb enough to use their ISP's "free" e-mail service.

They only offer that to tie people to their service. Switch providers, lose your e-mail.

I *always* recommend independent e-mail providers, even if they're advertising-supported.
     
Big Mac
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Jun 28, 2010, 02:15 AM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
IMAP is just as free and easy to setup, the reason why some providers don't offer it is because it is more expensive to store email for people, performing IMAP syncs can be computationally expensive (especially with misbehaving clients such as OS X Mail)
Are you referring to Mail's IMAP idle behavior or something else?

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
besson3c
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Jun 28, 2010, 04:42 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
Are you referring to Mail's IMAP idle behavior or something else?
Mail's lack of GUI option for specifying what folders to sync, and raping of IMAP servers.
     
Big Mac
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Jun 28, 2010, 06:19 AM
 
I see. How does it rape IMAP servers, specifically?

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
besson3c
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Jun 28, 2010, 06:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
I see. How does it rape IMAP servers, specifically?
My opening up a ton of simultaneous connections, violating RFC.
     
asxless
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Jun 28, 2010, 09:31 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
What's wrong with this picture is that People are dumb enough to use their ISP's "free" e-mail service.

They only offer that to tie people to their service. Switch providers, lose your e-mail.

I *always* recommend independent e-mail providers, even if they're advertising-supported.
You've been around awhile. So surely you remember when "free" IMAP e-mail service was not available -- period. Some of us still have a few email accounts/addresses from those early days of the internet So if we want to use our iPhones for email, we have a choice of using these POP accounts and losing the ability to archive sent messages or giving up an address we have used (and have been know by) for over a decade.

asxless in iLand
( Last edited by asxless; Jun 28, 2010 at 10:18 AM. Reason: to include the full quoted post and make the intent of my reply more obvious)
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 28, 2010, 09:39 AM
 
Um, yeah.

Read the thread again and pay attention to who said what.

     
Koralatov
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Jun 30, 2010, 04:06 AM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
[…] Re: employer email NOT IMAP ? What ?
That's even more retarded than using Lotus Notes.
It is retarded that an employer wouldn’t support IMAP, but as someone who uses Notes on a daily basis, I can guarantee you that use of Lotus notes is symptomatic of significantly higher levels of retardation. It is, without doubt, the worst email app I have ever used.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 30, 2010, 04:22 AM
 
There are epic rant threads on MacNN on the spectacular failings of Lotus Notes.

Mostly turtle ranting, and me chiming in, and both of us doing our best to clarify to the odd incredulous passer-by that even the most over-the-top deriding of Notes and the most absurd claims are, by no means, an exaggeration.
     
besson3c
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Jun 30, 2010, 05:37 AM
 
I'm quite fond of Lotus Notes.









Just kidding, I've never used it, but I would like Turtle's head to explode. White text.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 30, 2010, 05:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by asxless View Post
You've been around awhile. So surely you remember when "free" IMAP e-mail service was not available -- period. Some of us still have a few email accounts/addresses from those early days of the internet So if we want to use our iPhones for email, we have a choice of using these POP accounts and losing the ability to archive sent messages or giving up an address we have used (and have been know by) for over a decade.
Yes, I remember well..

WHICH IS WHY I WAS SAYING THAT "LOTS" OF PEOPLE HAVE POP ACCOUNTS.

Including my own GMX account. Which I got ten or twelve years ago specifically to avoid provider tie-in. And which is free. And POP (since IMAP is a paid option despite what turtle believes).

This reasoning would have become obvious if you had re-read the thread and paid attention to who made which claims.

I was just the guy who verified to turtle that "a lot of services, and a lot of companies, that do not support IMAP for whatever reason." "Really. A lot."
     
   
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