Is there a workaround app for syncing shared POP3 email?

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Level 1

5 points

Is there a workaround app for syncing shared POP3 email?

Hello,

I wonder if a lot of families have this problem. I have a POP3 email ,verizon.net, that is our family email shared between my wife and I. I am tired of deleting the same emails from my iPad and my iPhone over and over so I am looking to find a way to set it up like this:

verizon.net email goes to my wife's devices and my devices

when I delete an email, it deletes from all of my devices and none of hers (i have an iPad, macbook, and iPhone)

when she deletes an email it deletes from all of hers and none of mine. (she has an iPhone and macbook)

So its kind of like a POP3 server splitting to two separate IMAP servers; my wife's and mine.

I have tried automatic forwarding on verizon's end but I can only forward to one address and it causes issues with return addresses not matching when I reply so emails get identified as spam more often. In addition, when I do forward email automatically on verizon's server side (not on the client) it is no longer delivered to the original email account.

We want to avoid changing email addresses and verizon only offers POP3.

Any ideas everyone?

iPad

Posted on Aug 29, 2014 8:00 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 29, 2014 8:11 AM in response to JM140

I know it's not what you want to hear but you're trying to make POP3 work for something it wasn't really designed for. In the long run, I suspect you'd be much happier if you bit the bullet and got an IMAP address.

I use Gmail to manage an old POP3 address I don't use much but wasn't quite ready to give up. Gmail picks up that email and puts it, labled, in my Gmail inbox. If I were to reply to it, it would appear to come from the old POP3 address. No one who has the old address need ever know the new one.

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Answer 2

JM140 Author

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Aug 29, 2014 8:20 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Thanks Meg. Correct me if I am wrong though: IMAP will not sync itself two ways though. In other words, if i went IMAP then when i delete an email, it is deleted on ALL devices not just mine. So the email I delete would be deleted from my wife's devices as well. Right??

If I could just forward the email automatically to two separate IMAP accounts and have all sent and reply-to emails appear to come from the original verizon.net account I think i can get it to work but verizon only forwards to one.

Thanks for helping me think through this

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Answer 3

tmaag

Level 1

120 points

Aug 29, 2014 8:29 AM in response to JM140

As said above, check and see if there is an IMAP server you can connect through.

This doc may help

Using a POP account with more than one device

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3228?viewlocale=en_US

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Answer 4

Aug 29, 2014 8:44 AM in response to JM140

JM140 wrote:

Hello,

when I delete an email, it deletes from all of my devices and none of hers (i have an iPad, macbook, and iPhone)

when she deletes an email it deletes from all of hers and none of mine. (she has an iPhone and macbook)

So its kind of like a POP3 server splitting to two separate IMAP servers; my wife's and mine.

Any ideas everyone?

Nope, its a POP server acting like a pop server where the settings on each device have it so email is left on the server and only deleted from the devices.

This means all devices can download the email from the server, but its never really removed from the server, only from the devices upon deletion, unless one of the devices is set to have it deleted from the server when its deleted from the device.

Basically, what you want is not possible, as you want an IMAP functionality on only specific devices. IMAP is designed to sync actions across all devices using the account. Because basically what happens is actions take place on the server, and then trickle down to the devices.

On POP accounts its the opposite. Actions take place on the Devices and then if configured as such may move up to the server.

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Answer 5

JM140 Author

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5 points

Aug 29, 2014 8:52 AM in response to tmaag

Thanks tmaag. Are you referring to connecting through a 3rd party IMAP server or a verizon one? Unfortunately, verizon does not use IMAP at all

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Answer 6

JM140 Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 29, 2014 8:58 AM in response to Phil0124

Phil, thanks for the explanation and I get how POP and IMAP work. What I am looking for is a way to get around it and figure there may be a good amount of people with the same problem.

It has to be possible to do this. Not as the protocols were designed but it seems that a 3rd party app or some kind of forwarding script could accomplish this.

It just looks like nobody has made an app like that yet.

If I could just get my verizon email to be forwarded to two separate IMAP accounts and configure the return addresses I think it would work. Any ideas on the forwarding? Verizon will only auto forward to one.

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Answer 7

edclange

Level 5

4,374 points

Aug 29, 2014 9:13 AM in response to JM140

Nobody has made any apps or scripts to do what you want because IMAP already does it. It was specifically designed to get around the limitations of POP3.

I use my personal Linux server to retrieve mail from three older POP3 accounts and aggregate them into one IMAP account.

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Answer 8

JM140 Author

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5 points

Aug 29, 2014 9:45 AM in response to edclange

edclange:

I don't think IMAP does this, okay, maybe I misunderstand something. Will IMAP split email in two different ways? My wife's devices synced together and mine synced together so that when I delete an email it is not deleted on her devices.

That is what I am trying to do and to my limited understanding IMAP will NOT do that.

Do you know of a way I can forward my POP email to two separate IMAP accounts and have the return addresses match the POP email address?

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Answer 9

edclange

Level 5

4,374 points

Aug 31, 2014 1:27 PM in response to JM140

IMAP will make every device see identical message lists. Any message viewed, moved, or deleted on one device will be reflected in the same way on other devices.

What you are asking for is traditionally accomplished using separate mail accounts. With that, a Linux (or similar) server running customized procmail forwarding rules could possibly accomplish the non-standard use case that you seem to require.

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