Android app deletes emails before I can download them to the desktop EM Client

Mobile apps
1

I received the message about the new Android app. So I installed it and imported the settings from the desktop EM Client with the QR Code.

But the Android app starting downloading automatically all emails and deleting them from the mailserver, before I had a chance to download them to the desktop EM Client. This way I have lost a few emails.

Basically I had to uninstall the Android app.

Is it possible to set things up so that both the desktop EM Client and the Android EM Client have the same email database?

2

If you want to use several email clients without conflict you need to use IMAP protocols to access the mail server. IMAP will leave the mails on the server until you delete them in the client.

3

Ok, but with IMAP can I still have a searchable database? Perhaps not, right?

Ideally there should be a functionality allowing to sync the databases of the desktop client and Android app. That is, you use one of the two for sending or receiving, then let the two sync their databases.

4

With IMAP the emails are synced on the server (they stay there until you manually delete them)
This means that your phone and your PC will both receive the synced database.
You can in the settings check to download all messages so you can search locally.

5

Well, but without the ability to sync between the desktop and the Android email client, the Android email client is essentially useless.

If at least you could set the Android client up not to delete the emails on the mail server, but even that doesn’t seem to be possible.

I also tried (after importing with the QR code) to change the emails accounts in the Android client to IMAP, but that option doesn’t seem to exist. I was only able to deactivate POP3, but could not make the change to IMAP.

6

To have the same messages on both, synced from the server, they both need to be setup as IMAP (or Exchange).

You will need to go to your accounts and add the account again using the automatic setup. That should use IMAP by default. Then move any messages you want to keep from the POP3 to the new IMAP folders. Do the same on both your mobile and desktop applications. When done, remove the POP3 accounts from both devices. Then anything you do one one device, like deleting a message or moving it to another folder, will be visible on the other one as well.

7

No, I meant the syncing should happen directly between the smartphone and the PC.

Also because on the PC there all emails of the past years.

8

That’s not possible.

You need to sync through a server, which is there for that purpose. That is where the message store is located, and what each device will see.

9

That doesn’t make sense, because on the server there are not the emails of the past years.

This syncing capability between smartphone and PC needs to be added.

10

No, unfortunately that is not possible.

The server is there for that purpose. So as I said, move the messages from the POP3 to the IMAP folders, then any device connecting to that account will see the same messages.

11

For sure this smartphone-PC syncing capability could be implemented. Would obviously require some recoding.

12

No, it is not possible. That is not how POP3 or IMAP works. It is between client and server only. Not client to client.

13

@amln1 : Ok, now three users have tried to explain to you that you need IMAP. So may be you’re wrong.

14

Sorry, I’m wrong about what - can you be more specific?

Clearly, IMAP can’t be used by the Android client to search across the email database of the desktop client (tens of thousands of emails from years of use, stored locally on the PC). So IMAP makes no sense for me.

Then, I suggested that the feature be added which allows direct sync between the desktop client and Android client databases. The response was “it is not possible”. But this is utter nonsense - of course such a feature could be implemented. It’s just a matter of modifying the desktop and Android clients.
Would require some R&D, but it’s not something which can’t be done.

15

It can. Using IMAP both the desktop and mobile apps have the same data, and you can of course search that on either device, as well as any other applications and webmail connecting to the same account. That is the purpose of IMAP, that the same data is available on any device connecting to the server message store.

That is not possible. The protocols are between client and server only. Both IMAP and POP3 are between client and server only. They don’t connect client to client.

IMAP allows you to have the same data on all devices and apps connecting to the same account. There is nothing that needs to be developed as the technology is already there. Just use it.

16

No, it can’t. Because the data (GBytes of emails, downloaded over 10 years of use) is stored locally on the PC and the smartphone has no access to it.

No, what I am saying is that you sync the (local) databases of the desktop client and smartphone client, not over some protocol, but directly. More specifically:

  • The smartphone is connected with the PC with a cable.
  • Then, like with a backup software which compares files and folders on the PC with files and folders on an external backup device, you compare the emails stored locally on the PC with those stored locally on the smartphone and synchronise them. The end result is that the local email databases of the two devices (PC and smartphone) have the same content.