partial download of messages
hi,
i only download the subject of messages using pop3. only when i want them to become available fully in thunderbird and disappear on the server i complete the download.
if i delete such a message in thunderbird (one which hasn't been fully downloaded yet) it is also deleted on the mail server. perfect!
however i'm missing a synchronisation in the other direction: if i delete such a message on the server (e.g. using a mail client on a mobile device) i would like that message to be deleted in thunderbird the next time it connects to the mail server.
my old micro soft outlook 2001 which i had been using before offered that functionality.
kind regards, dirk
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All Replies (4)
This two-way synchronization is not part of POP. You need to use IMAP for this. If you really did use POP with Outlook 2001, then I don't know how they did this.
Switch from POP to IMAP account
If you want to learn about the difference between POP and IMAP, read about it here.
hi bruce,
thanks for your answer.
i suppose outlook checked whether the message-ids that haven't been fully downloaded yet still exist on the server each time it polled for new messages.
if a message-id was deleted since the time it was downloaded the message got deleted in outlook too.
can this be implemented in thunderbird too?
kind regards, dirk
No. The reason being so that people can delete the messages from the server without the messages being deleted from their computer. That is how POP is supposed to work.
In the original use of POP, leaving messages on the server was frowned upon because disk space was at a premium. The fundamental specifications of POP have not changed. Only that over time, people started to leave the messages on the server more.
Imagine the chaos that would have reigned if deleting an e-mail from the server meant that the same e-mail which was downloaded fully to your computer, disappeared? People would have been up in arms.
Over time, people started accessing their e-mail from multiple computers & devices, so IMAP was developed. It is now the primary way most people access IMAP. Enough so that some e-mail providers don't like people using POP anymore, because they would rather focus their resources on the more popular IMAP.
The original way POP was used, is still the main way POP is still used. For some people, this fits their purposes.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has always violated the standards, for what they think is the best way to do things. Mostly that involves keeping their customers used to the way they do things. That way, when their customers are faced with products that do things the way the standards are, they are disappointed and go back to the Microsoft product.
thanks again for your very detailed answer.
of course only partially downloaded messages got deleted on the computer in case that they were deleted on the server by a mobile client. fully downloaded messages are deleted on the server by the computer. at least that's the way i set up my outlook.
i quite liked that way of message handling over the last 10 - 15 years and would have loved to continue like that.
but i guess it's time to move on to imap now...