Email gripes

I am no expert but I have learned that there are many different email programs, and that each one seems to want to do things its own way, which makes maintaining an archive of one’s communications over multiple platforms a pain. Email programs seem to cover a selection of separate jobs: 1. receiving and sending, 2. archiving and maintaining a database, 3. finding, sorting and displaying items. If the database uses compression it has to be a method available on every platform. The most universal sort of database is the filing system. I used to keep a separate directory for each correspondent, with subdirectories for years, and dates for indexing the emails. If more than one email had the same date then I fudged it with suffixes. Not a good system for search by subject, of course. I used Messenger Pro for many years, and twice got tripped up when the database-indexing system got broken. Now I use Claws Mail in Raspberry Pi OS. But I find that Claws Mail in Manjaro only uses the IMAP protocol, not POP3, so I cannot synchronize my Raspberry Pi’s email with that of my Pinebook/Pro’s. I tried installing KMail, and then Balsa, on the PinebookPro, but neither would let me import Claws Mail mailboxes. So I think I need advice.

But I find that Claws Mail in Manjaro only uses the IMAP protocol, not POP3

But surely that’s what you want if you’re after synchronising your email across multiple clients?

I use Thunderbird and Messenger Pro for Linux on a couple of Linux systems (laptop and desktop), plus K9 Mail on an Android phone, and they all access the same email database (Dovecot, running on Linux) using IMAP. Read a message on one and it shows read on all of the others; move a message into another folder on one, and it moves on all of the others. They all use their own local mail databases for speed, but each one does its own job of keeping in step with the central one.

That’s what IMAP is designed for.

In theory Messenger Pro for RISC OS¹ could also access the same IMAP database, but in practice it seems to be very crashy and doesn’t pick up the read/unread statuses. It kind of works, but can’t see all of the archived folders and – sooner or later – it gives out with a string of terminal Aborts on Data Transfer and needs to have NewsDir deleted and recreated from scratch. There seems to be minimal documentation, and R-Comp don’t provide support on the Messenger Pro mailing list, so I’ve mostly given up on ever getting email back to the RISC OS desktop. It’s a shame, as it would be quite a “nice to have” for some tasks.

¹ I have version 8.05, IIRC, but it has been an issue since before that point. I didn’t feel the urge to pay for version 9, just to find that it had similar limitations.

But surely that’s what you want if you’re after synchronizing your email across multiple clients?

Yes. However it looks as if Plusnet has separate servers for POP and IMAP. When I asked them how I should read my mail from the laptop they could only suggest using webmail. Not ideal.

The emails on the POP and IMAP servers should be the same, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t.

PlusNet are going to drop email completely soon, but in the meantime they are making it so unreliable you stop using it by yourself.

Oh dear. Any suggestions what the old folks left behind should do about that? I do have some gmail accounts, but I have not really used them. Has no enterprising entrepreneur seen a gap in the market here, to provide services for the ancientry? My local town only has one bank left, and one building society. Will the tide turn and people wake up to the demand for personal services, or have the droids already won?

Any suggestions what the old folks left behind should do about that? I do have some gmail accounts, but I have not really used them. Has no enterprising entrepreneur seen a gap in the market here, to provide services for the ancientry?

Is there any reason why the ancientry can’t use GMail? Or the Microsoft offering? Or set up their own email hosting account with a company which provides it?

Few ISPs are offering email these days, because very few people want it. Why tie your email to an unconnected service like your broadband provision? Most people prefer to have an email address that doesn’t change if they move from one ISP to another.

My local town only has one bank left, and one building society. Will the tide turn and people wake up to the demand for personal services, or have the droids already won?

I’m not sure this is connected? This isn’t about personal service, but about the realisation that tying one’s email to an unconnected service provider is a really bad idea.