[LINK] RFI: Email Duplicate-Download Problems

[Roger Clarke]

Can linkers knowledgeable about email/POP/IMAP/webmail help with this?

It's a real problem for me in my current efforts to achieve transition from OSX to Linux.

Thanks for any leads!

_____________________________________________________


I download my email using Eudora and (mostly) POP, and maintain my archives on my own primary deaktop.

I leave 7 days' worth of email up on the ISP's server.  (This is to allow for crashes at my end before my backup processes have kicked in.  I've seldom needed it, but it makes me feel comfortable).

I have multiple devices in the house, one of which is my primary.  I have laptops that travel with me, and I occasionally resort to webmail when whatever service I'm on at the time blocks outbound email from my portable's client.

I occasionally download from the ISP's email-server using a device other than the primary.  That includes when I'm on the move, using my portables and occasionally webmail.  Added to that, I'm now trialing Evolution on Linux (using IMAP), as part of my transition planning.

That gives rise to a serious problem:  

After I download using IMAP from Linux/Evolution, the next time I download
on the primary (OSX/Eudora/POP), I get all 7 days' worth of emails still stored at the ISP.  This duplicates of the order of 1000 messages and makes a complete mess of my carefully organised suite of mailboxes.

This kind of issue has also occurred when using webmail.  However, my son
successfully uses webmail and Eudora concurrently and *without* this same
issue. 


I don't understand what the mechanism is that causes the mail-server to lose its record of what has been downloaded before.

Is there an option somewhere that I have to set?

(On the primary, the setting I use is 'Leave on Server for 7 days'.
On all other devices using POP, the parameter is 'Leave on Server', i.e.
forever/until the primary device performs the delete.  And, using IMAP, 'Leave on Server' is the default mode of operation).

Or is there a setting that the ISP has in its server that's causing the behaviour?

Surely mail-servers can cope with mixes of POP, webmail and IMAP downloads coming from different clients, variously at different IP-addresses and the same IP-address?


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			             
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 6916                        http://about.me/roger.clarke
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/ 

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University