Please forgive the awkwardness of the subject wording. This inquiry is not critical and sort of “out of the blue”, but it’s nagging, and I’m sure there are people here who can answer it knowledgeably.
I’ve stubbornly maintained my POP3 mail account until now. In 2022 I moved my mail service to Google Workspace because I work internationally and the system was more reliable than the local server I was on. POP3 was the simplest protocol in the world and perfectly suited the work that my wife and I have been engaged in for (literally) 30 years.
For the first two years with Google Workspace our POP3 accounts worked seamlessly, In my case with eMClient and in my wife’s case Apple Mail. But as many know, Google (along with many other providers) are moving exclusively to applications that use OAuth. The change with eMClient was very simple, as it will be when I change my wife’s client.
Sorry for the long wind-up, here’s the question — Google Workspace sent out a memo with the following introduction:
“Starting September 30, 2024, Google Workspace accounts will only allow access to apps using OAuth. Password-based access (with the exception of App Passwords) will no longer be supported. POP and IMAP are NOT going away and can still be enabled with apps that connect using OAuth.”
The words I bolded confuse me thoroughly. When you use OAuth to connect your application to the Google Wkspc. server you’re not given any option to make the service POP or IMAP. Of course your mail is still your mail, and that’s not going away. But I am confounded by their saying that POP is “not going away”. Are they suggesting that some applications are able to set up POP3 accounts using their OAuth account-creation process and some are not?
Maybe the answer to this is stupendously simple and I’m just missing it. If so my apologies. But if you have an answer and wish to share, thank you very much!
As Google advised “back in March 2022” as per the eM Client blog link, that they were moving to IMAP (password less) account OAuth token setups “for security reasons” the same as Microsoft to be fully completed in September 2024.
So you need to now look at “re-adding your same Gmail account as IMAP” as per the following eM Client support page link, and then move all your exiting POP mail to your IMAP account.
So you first “add your existing Gmail account as a new IMAP account in eM Client” via going to “Menu / Accounts” and click the "Add account and follow the wizard. Then once added, “drag / move all your POP messages & any custom message folders to your new IMAP account”.
Then once you are certain all the messages are showing in the new IMAP account, then remove your old POP account. You can see when the POP messages are completely moved over to your IMAP account, by clicking the dropdown on the right of Refresh top left and clicking Show Operations.
Note: Before doing anything, backup eM Client via “Menu / Backup” incase you need to restore for any reason. You can see when the backup is complete via clicking the dropdown arrow on the right of Refresh at the top left, also clicking “Show Operations”.
Lastly if you were not wanting to change to Gmail IMAP account setup due to Gmail space reasons if your mailbox is eg: larger than the Gmail allocated free 15GB space and you don’t want to pay for a larger Gmail space, then eM Client has an “Auto Archiving” option that you can enable / use in Settings to eg: automatically archive email older than x days to a Local folder which then will avoid you having to buy more Gmail space. It keeps the same mail structure.
Hi:
Thanks very much. Admittedly my mail was long and a little complex, but that was not my question. I have already done all the things you mention and it worked out fine.
My question was about Google’s communication on this. I hope you didn’t have to spend too much time on your response, and I do appreciate it greatly!
My question was about Google’s communication on this.
Google advised globally in March 2022 to start to moving to IMAP where all mail client providors then advised their customers as eM Client did.
To the Google communication on app passwords.
Some customers in the past used manual setups (with app passwords) in eM Client with Gmail and MS Accounts, but that’s all now “no longer supported” or “meant to be used” in eM Client.
Yes, thank you. Not my question, but thanks!
Not my question, but thanks!
Then here is another answer that might help.
Are they suggesting that some applications are able to set up POP3 accounts using their OAuth account-creation process and some are not?
No “you can’t use POP accounts in the OAuth token process” with Google via the automatic account wizard. The eM Client wizard setup with Google accounts “only sets up IMAP accounts” which is what Google advise to do now.
Pop with Google was previously used in a manual account setup in eM Client via “Add account / Mail / Other”. But now you need to use IMAP with Google via the automatic account wizard “as you have already done”. So you are all ok.
Cool, thanks so much! I operated 2 POP3 accounts for several years on Google Wkspc., which I set up manually, and they hummed along beautifully.
I remain mystified by those words that POP is “not going away” though. If anyone has any explanation for that I’d love to hear it. Clearly POP is “going away” if you can’t create a Google Wkspc. mail account with it after September 30.
I remain mystified by those words that POP is “not going away” though. If anyone has any explanation for that I’d love to hear it.
That would be referring to eg: older “non secure mail clients” that cannot use IMAP with OAuth and had to use app passwords to get mail, which is not what Google now are wanting you to use.
Google support can help you further with information on their documentation via their Gmail Community website & Google support pages via either of the following links.
https://support.google.com/mail/community
https://support.google.com/mail
Thanks! I should say that though I was stubborn about using POP3 for its simplicity of structure, modern implementation of IMAP has come a long way and I’m finding the Google Workspace system, especially its integration with eMClient, to be very efficient and useful.