Q about how TB handles google mail

[jd1008]

On 08/20/2015 08:05 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 08/21/15 07:06, jd1008 wrote:
>> A friend came to me asking for help I was not able to
>> figure out.
>>
>> He has multiple laptops, at different geographical locations.
>> On all of them, he uses fedora and TB.
>>
>> What he has bot been able to achieve is that all laptops
>> download the same messages from gmail.
>>
>> But what happens is that if laptop A downloads all
>> latest messages. Then if he logs off, and 2 days later,
>> he logs in on laptop B and tried to download all messages,
>> he only gets the ones that come in AFTER the ones he
>> downloaded on laptop A.
>>
>> How can he config TB to always download messages that have
>> not been downloaded?
>>
>> Or is it an issue with the gmail server itself?
>>
>> I have seen a solution that advises the use of IMAP instead
>> of pop3.
>>
>> But that is not what he wants, because sometimes he does not have
>> access to the web, and would still like to read messages he has
>> not read yet, so he needs them to be on the laptops.
>>
>> Perhaps it cannot be done???
>>
> The better solution for your friend is to switch to IMAP as IMAP has been designed from the start to work with multiple clients.
>
> If you watch the T-Bird processes on multiple clients using POP you'll notice that the status reported on some will be "There are no NEW message" while one client will get a message.  This is because the server has no way to determine which of the multiple clients has downloaded a message so when a message is downloaded by any client it is no longer marked as "NEW" on the server.
>
> If you want to get all of the messages on to a given client you have to go to the gmail settings for POP3 and check the box for "Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded".  But be advised that this is a "one shot" setting and the next client that connects to download will get all the messages on the server BUT the setting will be cleared.  You'd have to do this over and over again for all you clients.
>
> So...just move to IMAP is the real answer.
>   
>
Phew!!! THAT WAS IT!!!
Awesome.
Hey --- I will tell my friend the source of the solution, so
don't worry - I will not claim the kudos :) :)