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On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:04:01 -0500, Andrew Rybenov wrote:
> There are some mails had came to my gmail box.
>
> I see them in Outlook Express.
>
> Yet M2 (with auto-check every 2 mins) reports nothing.
> I check manually (over and over) - still nothing.
> I reload Opera - still nothing.
>
> That's very unreliable.
It's Gmail's doing, not Opera's.
To prove that, try reading with any other program
(e.g. Thunderbird, or even Outlook Express again,
on a different computer, or even via a different "Identity"
in the same computer).
The nature of Gmail's simulation of POP
is that normally, as soon as any one POP client
has fully downloaded any particular message,
Gmail acts as if that message is "no longer on the POP server,"
and subsequently tells no other client (nor even the same client)
that it still exists.
This logic is actually a very intelligent way
to combine the needs of a web-based "keep mail forever" system
with the needs of POP servers to limit how much mail
remains in the POP mailbox, because it becomes extremely inefficient
to process requests for discovering and downloading only new mail
as the length of the "messages still on server" lists
grow into the thousands, not to mention what a disaster it is
if any client loses track of which of all those thousands
it has in fact already downloaded, and should refrain
from downloading again each time.
If you want to download messages from Gmail
to more than one POP client, you must use a different mode
of logging into Gmail, known as "Recent" mode
(just change your login "user name" to "recent:me@xxxxxxxxx"),
in which Gmail gives any client the complete list
of all mail less than 30 days old,
then lets each client sort out which ones it has already received.
My own experiment with this mode has encountered another
potential surprise -- in "normal" POP mode, Gmail completely ignores
POP client requests to "delete message from server,"
since the aim of Gmail is to have you keep all of your mail,
as seen in your "web view," without your POP client
accidentally deleting it every time you use POP.
However, when using the "recent" login mode for POP,
I found that any messages my client asked the server to delete
were immediately transferred by Gmail into my "Trash" view at Gmail
(no longer searchable, and automatically "deleted forever" after a while),
which never happens in the original, "normal" POP mode.
"Forewarned is forearmed," as the saying goes,
so I hope this information prepares one to know what to expect
when using Gmail with POP clients (they also have an IMAP mode,
which has its own difficulties, perhaps much more so than with POP).
Gmail: Using POP on multiple clients or mobile devices
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=47948
N.B. - "Once you enable recent mode, please be sure
to configure your POP client to leave messages on the server"
(or else, in my experience, they will be trashed)
"Forewarned is forearmed"
http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/forewarnedis.html
Best wishes.
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