Deleting mail from POP server w/ Apple OS X Mail - Mac Applications & Software

[Rob]

I have a POP e-mail account that I check from both my home and work
machines (I'd switch it to IMAP if that was offered, but it's not). I'd
really like to switch to OS X Mail, for a variety of reasons, but can't
until I can figure out some way to get this program to delete *selected*
messages off the POP server.

The options listed in Mail's Accounts sheet don't offer anything close
to that flexibility--I can delete all messages off the server after a
preset time, or I can delete every message that I move out of the Inbox
after it's downloaded (meaning I would have no way to use any of Mail's
filters unless I'd also downloaded the filtered messages to my work
machine first).

What I want is the very basic option that Eudora has had since at least
1994: Remove the message from the server when it's deleted from the
trash on my Mac. (Better yet, let me issue a "delete from server"
command via a contextual menu.) Is there any way to do this, either from
within Mail or by adding a plug-in?

Or is this at least fixed in Panther?

(Yes, I submitted a comment on this topic at Apple's feedback page.)

- R

--

(you need to fix the typo in my address to send me e-mail)

Rob Pegoraro
Arlington, Va., USA

[Carlo]

Rob Pegoraro <robp~typo~speakeasy.net> wrote:
 

You could have mail forwarded automatically to an account with an IMAP
mailbox. (I do something similar by having mail sent to a mail service
with a particularly robust spam filter, which cleans out my mail before
it gets to me and Mail.app)
 

There's no sign I've heard that that's coming in Panther, sorry. I don't
know of a plug-in either. You could, however, use an app like POPmonitor
to show a list of message headers on a server for a given account and
delete messages manually.

[Rob]

In article <panix.com>,
net wrote:
 
> >
> > You could have mail forwarded automatically to an account with an IMAP
> > mailbox. (I do something similar by having mail sent to a mail service[/ref]
>
> I'll strongly second this. POP is just not great for leaving
> things on the server. It was never meant to be used this way,
> while IMAP was built for this purpose from the start.[/ref]

I hadn't thought of that workaround. That might actually work, since my
home ISP offers IMAP as well as POP, unlike my work account.

But, in the event that anybody from Apple is listening, I feel compelled
to note that most ISPs only offer POP access. That's the reality of the
world, and the mail client has to deal with that, not pretend that
everybody can switch to IMAP overnight. And adding the appropriate
option to Mail would cost *nothing* in terms of UI complexity--just
replace the useless "when the message is moved from the inbox" option
with "when the message is deleted from the trash."

(I could make the same argument about Mozilla Mail or Thunderbird, which
are even more primitive in their support for POP accounts.)
 

No way. One mail client is all that I should have to use for one e-mail
account. It's just a question of which program I choose (I'll gladly
listen to recommendations for a good POP/IMAP client that works
effectively with both kinds of servers and uses Apple's Address Book).
 

Agreed. It shouldn't be this hard, should it?

- R

--

(you need to fix the typo in my address to send me e-mail)

Rob Pegoraro
Arlington, Va., USA

[BreadWithSpam@fractious.net]

Rob Pegoraro <robp~typo~speakeasy.net> writes: 
 
>
> But, in the event that anybody from Apple is listening, I feel compelled
> to note that most ISPs only offer POP access. That's the reality of the
> world, and the mail client has to deal with that, not pretend that[/ref]

Actually, Apple's dealing with IMAP and POP reasonably
appropriately. The problem is attempting to play "leave
it on the server" with POP. Not all POP servers do so
in the right way. In fact, when i was stuck with POP,
I found that more often than not, it left a mess.

Apple themselves offer an IMAP service (though with
not so much storage and a misconfigured SMTP server), so
folks who want to do things the right way have lots
of options. As I mentioned, I won't use the mail service
from my ISP anyway - in general, I think using one's
ISP for mail service is asking for trouble - unless
one is forwarding his mail there, it means that if
one changes ISP, one needs to notify everyone of a
new mail address, which is just silly. Separate your
mail service from your connectivity service and you're
all set - and likely to get _much_ better mail service.
 

As far as I know, the only one which works with Apple's address
book is Mail.app. Get over your POP fetish and you're golden....
 
>
> Agreed. It shouldn't be this hard, should it?[/ref]

Nope. But, such is the state of the world.

--d

--
Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Are you posting responses that are easy for others to follow?
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting

[Tim]

In article <panix.com>,
<net> wrote: 

I use mutt from Fink. OK, it's a text-based mail reader, but it has
some fantastic features. I only mention this, because it can do address
lookups through an external program called lbdb, not available from
fink, but which you can download easily enough (I got the sources from
Debian). lbdb has many plugin modules to query addresses from multiple
sources; local accounts, NIS maps, LDAP servers, Palm addressbooks, and
many others. In the latest version, they added a module to query OS X's
addressbook. I had been tempted to switch to Mail purely because of
access to AddressBook, but now that Mutt can do it, I don't think I'll
bother, at least until Panther comes out - Mutt does threading now, and
Mail won't until Panther comes out.

Tim

[Carlo]

<net> wrote:
 
>
> As far as I know, the only one which works with Apple's address
> book is Mail.app.[/ref]

This was posted a few hours ago on another list, about BuddyPop, a
LaunchBar-type app for the Address Book:

People that care about this and start using Address
Book more frequently might want to look into
BuddyPop:

http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/buddypop/

It allows you to pop up a translucent panel with a
key press and progressively search your address
book DB. Clicking the email address opens an email
in your preferred client or you can read off the
entire address card. It's been a great investment
for 5 euros.

[Neill]

Rob Pegoraro <robp~typo~speakeasy.net> wrote:
 

PowerMail <http://www.ctmdev.com>.

[Rob]

In article <panix.com>,
net wrote:
 

I've had a few glitches like that, but most of the time--for me, over
nine years and four different providers--leaving messages on a POP
server has been a perfectly workable approach.

More important, though, is that Apple Mail *does* let you keep mail on
the server. So it can't be the case that Apple is trying to keep its
users out of trouble by not supporting a problematic feature. It has
simply implemented this feature (IMHO) in an uncharacteristically dumb
way that makes it unusable to most people.
 

Talk to the ISPs, not me. Most of them, and in particular most of the
big, name-brand companies--SBC, Verizon, AT&T, etc.--only offer POP.

Thanks to all for the software recommendations, BTW...

--

(you need to fix the typo in my address to send me e-mail)

Rob Pegoraro
Arlington, Va., USA

[BreadWithSpam@fractious.net]

Removed by Administrator