iPod Touch E-mail Client Questions

[IDN101]

Hi,

Looking for some answers to these questions concerning the Touch’s E-mail Client:-

-How many separate e-mail accounts can the E-mail app handle?

-Can it handle POP3 and web-based e-mail accounts (G-Mail, etc)

-Can it download e-mails from all the different accounts at the same time- or do you have to “open” each account separately and Check for Mail?

-Do you have the Option to Leave the e-mails on the Server after downloading?

-Can you compose e-mails offline and save them for sending once you have wifi access?

-Can you define your own folder structure in addition to the standard InBox, OutBox, etc.

Many thanks for all help.

Regards,
Ian

[jhollington]

-How many separate e-mail accounts can the E-mail app handle?

I'm not aware of any fixed limit. I've had up to ten accounts on the device during testing. There's very likely a theoretical limit somewhere, but it's higher than most people would hit.

-Can it handle POP3 and web-based e-mail accounts (G-Mail, etc)

It handles POP3 and IMAP4 accounts. As long as your e-mail is available from your webmail provider using one of those protocols, you'll be fine. There are built-in preconfigurations for popular services such as GMail, Yahoo, etc.

Hotmail, on the other hand, is definitely NOT available, as Microsoft does not provide access via POP3 or IMAP4. They're about the only webmail provider I can think of off-hand that doesn't however.

Note that you can also access your GMail (or any Webmail) through the Safari browser. Most web-pages will render as they would in any other browser, but Google has built a customized iPhone/iPod touch page that actually looks and works brilliantly.

-Can it download e-mails from all the different accounts at the same time- or do you have to “open” each account separately and Check for Mail?


Yes, as long as you have it set to poll for mail at regularly intervals. If you have it set to "Manual" then you would of course have to check each account individually.

-Do you have the Option to Leave the e-mails on the Server after downloading?

For POP3, yes. For IMAP4 this is irrelevant, as mail is synchronized with the server, rather than downloaded to an independent message store. With IMAP, messages will only be deleted on the server if you delete them from your IMAP client (again, it synchronizes changes with the server, so read status and deleted status also sync across in both directions).

-Can you compose e-mails offline and save them for sending once you have wifi access?


Yes. There are two ways you can do this.... You can save a message in-progress as a "Draft" in which case it will be saved in a "Drafts" folder. If you're using an IMAP4 account, you can sync this "Drafts" folder with the server, and then finish the e-mail later on your desktop.

If you simply want to send the e-mail when you have coverage, you can hit the "Send" button and the e-mail will go into the "Outbox" It won't be sent immediately upon your return to coverage, but rather at the next normal mail polling interval (ie, 15 minutes, one hours, whatever), or when you next manually force a polling interval.

-Can you define your own folder structure in addition to the standard InBox, OutBox, etc.


If you're using an IMAP server, the folder structure is downloaded from the server. Your folders are synced, and any messages you move on the iPhone between folders are moved on the server (and these changes are therefore reflected on your desktop client).

If you're using POP3, then beyond the standard Sent, Drafts, Trash, etc., you cannot create additional folders to file your mail.

If at all possible, I strongly recommend using IMAP4. From the points above, the advantages should be obvious, and this is even moreso with a portable device, where presumably it's not going to be your only access point for your e-mail (you likely use a desktop client as well). Most of the major e-mail providers now offer IMAP support (even GMail introduced it last fall), so it's really just a matter of choosing that as the e-mail protocol to use.

The main advantage of IMAP is that rather than downloading your mail into a separate offline store that is treated separately from your mailbox, an IMAP client synchronizes with the server. As you read messages in your desktop e-mail client, your webmail e-mail client, or on your iPod touch, these will be marked "read" on the server (and therefore in your other clients). Likewise for messages you delete or file into sub-folders. Basically, the advantage is that you only have to deal with your inbox once, rather than revisiting all of the same messages in every different client or access method.

[IDN101]

Many thanks for the very swift and comprehensive reply.

Sounds like the e-mail client on the Touch will be VERY useful to me.

Regards,
Ian

[pmills]

Actually, if you have mail polling set to "manual" all your mail accounts will be checked as soon as you click on the mail icon.

[baobab68]

Also, Hotmail users *may* wish to check out Izymail. That service will poll your Hotmail account and then acts as a POP3 server.

Only issue is that you obviously have to give Izymail your Hotmail password.

[ipodlover29]

Also, Hotmail users *may* wish to check out Izymail. That service will poll your Hotmail account and then acts as a POP3 server.

Only issue is that you obviously have to give Izymail your Hotmail password.

Can also subscribe to hotmail plus for about the same cost at Izymail for $20/year or use the free web app developed by Izmail called Mail coaster.

http://www.mailcoaster.com/

[IDN101]

Actually, if you have mail polling set to "manual" all your mail accounts will be checked as soon as you click on the mail icon.

That's BRILLIANT! Sounds exactly what I need.

Cheers,
Ian

[baobab68]

Near as I could see, Izymail is free? I've been using for a few weeks now and it's still working ok...

[IDN101]

Actually, if you have mail polling set to "manual" all your mail accounts will be checked as soon as you click on the mail icon.

That's BRILLIANT! Sounds exactly what I need.

Cheers,
Ian

[DerekVOF]

I believe Izymail is only free for the first 30 days.

[sgtpepa]

Be careful to note that with the new Touch software, the mail setups for Gmail Yahoo etc, automatically uses the IMAP format not the POP3 format. Therefore it synchronizes with your Touch. So if you delete something on the touch, it will delete it from your mail folders.

If you do not want this but want POP3, then set up the accounts manually by adding a new account and filling in all of the info properly. I learned this the hard way. :shake:

[Ben B]

sgtpepa, That could be where I'm going wrong. I received emails on the touch, deleted them after I'd read them, but expected that they'd then arrive on my work machine when I got in the next morning. When I found they didn't download the next day I assumed it was because they hadn't been left on the server, not that it was me deleting them that had deleted it from the server.

I don't know what to set my smtp server to though? I set it to smtp.mail.yahoo.com but it doesn't like my username and password for it! Edit- just left the username and password for smtp server blank.

[sgtpepa]

Be sure you go to the advanced setting and that you have th ports configured correctly


Yahoo Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.mail.yahoo.com (port 110)
Yahoo Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - smtp.mail.yahoo.com (port 25)


I do not use Yahoo, so i do not know if this works properly

[wellsie]

I see that it is possible from a previous post, but I have two questions:

1) Is it the default setting for Optonline (and/or other POP3) e-mail?

2) If not, where do I change this setting? On another computer you would do it in the Acccounts dialog, but I don't know how to do it on the Touch.

Thank you!

[gerwen]

Wow jhollington, great answers. Should be stickied somewhere.

[asawyer13]

I have a problem in that I have to use Pop3 which should be fine, I'm doing this now on my BlackBerry Storm and it's working fine, but it doesn't work on my new Touch.

Scenario:

I have it set to when I delete an email on my Touch that it deletes it on the server and this works fine, however if I delete the email on the server the emails stay on the Touch which it shouldn't. I use the Touch to read emails and many are spam, so I just delete them. Later in the day, I actually use Outlook to get the messages and then it deletes those messages from the server. Having these messages stay on the Touch is a problem. They disappear correctly on my Storm, and other email clients that I've used thru the years on other PDA's, etc, but not the Touch. They also don't get deleted with the only other email client that I can find on the Touch which is IbisMail.

Any ideas of how to get this to work, or of another email client?

I have contacted izymail as it seems that the mailcoaster product they were talking about is gone, and their site hasn't been updated in a couple of years, but I thought I would see if their solution might work.

Thanks for any help.
ASawyer

[jhollington]

I'm actually somewhat surprised that you suggest that your other POP3 clients are working that way, as POP offers absolutely NO reconciliation of messages on the server. Once they've been downloaded, they're permanently on your device. Messages deleted on the device can optionally be deleted on the server by the POP3 client (ie, iPod touch, Storm, Outlook etc), but there's otherwise NO synchronization of messages with POP3.

That having been said, of course, if you were to delete said messages before you downloaded them to your device, then of course they won't be there, as they've already been deleted on the server.

On the other hand, if you're using IMAP to get at your e-mail, that offers full reconciliation such that messages deleted from one client will be deleted on all of the others. Likewise, messages marked read or filed are also synchronized between other IMAP clients via the IMAP server.