Leaving Messages On Server

What happened?

Typically, mail programs download e-mail messages from the server to your computer and then delete them from the server. This is much like when you go to the post office and take the mail out of your PO Box and take it home with you, which is why this method is called "Post Office Protocol" or POP. When you leave the post office, your box is empty. Likewise, after you check your e-mail, your mailbox on the server is empty.

Now many e-mail programs offer an option to leave messages on server. Some people find this handy because

• There is a backup copy of their messages in a secure location in case their computer crashes;
• They can download the messages onto more than one computer, or view them from a portable device.

However, the POP protocol was never designed to accommodate this behavior.

• Unless the mail program is also configured to "delete old messages after X days," they remain on the server indefinitely. People do not understand that when they delete the messages from their computer, or file them into folders, the messages remain on the server even after they empty their trash folder!
• Mail programs have to use clever non-standard tricks to keep track of what messages they have already downloaded. These tricks fail when mail configurations change. For example when you go to a new computer or change your e-mail program -- or when your service provider copies your messages to a new server as GCN did on August 7.
• When these tricks fail you get all the messages from the server, all over again, in a big avalanche. Some GCN users may have 4½ years of old messages stored on the server!
• Did you really want to store on the server all the messages you deleted in the last few years? Sorting through all of them to see which are new greatly slows down your sending and receiving of messages.

What can I do about it?

• If you want to keep your messages on the server, use IMAP instead of POP. IMAP is a more sophisticated method developed for that very purpose. It will never smother you under countless messages you (thought you had) deleted long ago. OR...
• If you want the simplicity of POP and don't really care whether a copy of your mail is kept on the server, turn off the leave messages on server option.
• If you need help deleting your old messages, GCN can empty your mailbox for you. Contact Bruce Paige for assistance.

Use IMAP

IMAP allows you to keep your messages on a server, organize them into folders there, and synchronize the messages and folders among multiple computers. You can even see the organized messages using a web browser from any Internet-connected computer. With its new servers, GCN allows you to use IMAP. If you want to keep your messages on the server, that is what you should do.

How you set up your mail program to use IMAP depends on the program. Sometimes you have to remove your mail account from the program and add back in a new account, specifying IMAP. For example, in Microsoft Outlook Express you go Tools - Accounts, click on the mail tab, delete the existing account (note that this will not delete the messages you have already downloaded to your computer) and create a new one, being sure to specify that the type of server is IMAP.

Regardless of the mail program, the three things you need to know are your account (also known as user name), password, and mail server. For example:

Once you have set up IMAP, you can see all the messages on the server and decide which to keep and which to delete. And you can delete them without downloading them to your computer first, saving time.

Turn off LMOS

If you don't want to change account settings, don't care if your mail is backed up on the server, only use one computer to check your mail, and want the simplest solution possible, POP is for you. However, to prevent this problem from happening again, to avoid problems on the server, and to greatly speed up receiving new messages, be sure to turn off the leave messages on server option.

Once you have done that you will stop accumulating new messages on the server. Any messages downloaded after you make this change will be removed from the server, but if you have already downloaded a few hundreds or thousands before making this change you still need to get them off the server. You can do that by logging on to SquirrelMail, or if you have too many messages to delete that way you should contact Bruce Paige for assistance in purging your mailbox.