Downloads

[#1]

Hi.

My partner is having issues with the e-mail, due to the imminent closure of the service by Plusnet, and to misunderstanding of how little aid their technicians will give, resulting in mailbox size issues (among other things).

We have looked through various menus and can see an ability to download e-mails as Mbox or Maildir, but no information on a) which is the better option, b) how we use these files to import elsewhere, c) what applications allow us to access and open them as we could when they were on the server, and d) how to avoid re-downloading the older ones each time.

Can anyone please advise ?

A second issue, which may be better asked at a Thunderbird forum, but since I’m here I’ll ask here first. I have been saying that she ought to be ok as she uses a Thunderbird client and that will certainly have been downloading to her local disk. I checked this morning and to my utter horror discovered that, that particular client creator has thought it amusing not to create a local inbox folder, so nothing has ever been downloaded to it ! I found out how to create the folder but I have no idea how to set automatic downloading (let alone successful downloads being deleted from the server). I assumed there would be something in the comms set-up but I must be missing it. If, as a secondary issue, anyone can help with that, we would be grateful.

TIA

[#2]

@FuzzyBear 

Can't help with the e-mail problem but there has been no announcement of PN e-mail services closing. There were rumours of this happening a couple of years back.

Brian

[#3]

@FuzzyBear Like @bmc , I am a little confused as to why you think the closure of the PN mail service is 'imminent'. Was this a comment from whoever you spoke to?

How is you Thunderbird client  set up - IMAP or POP3?

Who set up TB in the first place - in its vanilla state, TB has Inbox/drafts/sent/deleted   folders by default?

'

[#4]

@FuzzyBear 

I used Thunderbird for a while and it's oddities made me move to (Microsoft Office) Outlook (to distinguish it from the free offering).

If you use IMAP on a Plusnet mailbox there will at least be a local and Plusnet Server copy of the email.

You can either copy (or export)  emails to a local file (there are various Thunderbird export tools I believe).

Then paste (or import) the emails into a new account.

Depending on the computer platform, Outlook (the mail service), GMail or iCloud might be good choices to move mails to.

[#5]

@markhawkin What 'oddities'? I've been using TB for 20+ years and found it to be a very proficient and configurable client.

[#6]

@jab1 

Not relevant in this case, but I had (and have) accounts with some "legacy" email providers which didn't work well with Thunderbird.

It's the providers at fault rather than Thunderbird (they also play up on my iPhone with the Apple client) but the path of least resistance was to move to Outlook which hides their non-performace better from the user.

[#7]

Fair enough, @markhawkin .

[#8]

Thanks for all responses so far.

I was speaking to a Plusnet agent on the phone this morning. He said that the company didn’t provide much in the way of help and users had to find things out for themselves. Also advised that the company was going to be a broadband supplier only so folk are advised to look for alternatives for e-mail.

I don’t think I need to move much from Thunderbird as it hasn’t been downloading much (anything) from the server anyway. It seems it was just connecting the PC to the server as an interface.

I tried to see how the client was set up, hoping to find a reference to either POP or IMAP then go from there, but have yet to find where these settings are. Thus the supplementary question.  I'll have another look and see if I can find it.

[#9]

Plusnet have already begun the process of withdrawing our free email service, and both new and existing customers can no longer obtain a mailbox account. We would strongly suggest switching your existing mail service to an alternative third party provider of your choice,  to avoid any loss of data when we inevitably terminate the service over the next 12-18 months.  

[#10]

Ah ha. Just spotted a left hand column that comes up at a certain point in the settings. Easily missed if lookng at the setting on the main part of the screen.

Using IMAP apparently. Not seeing how to get it to auto-download to the local inbox folder I created though.

But there again, info on the Mbox and Maildir was the main issue.  But advice on either gratefully accepted.

[#11]

Using IMAP apparently. Not seeing how to get it to auto-download to the local inbox folder I created though.

You can't!.

IMAP keeps messages on the server and accesses them from there.

There are two options you can consider.

1) Select messages in the IMAP account Inbox and then copy them manually to your local folder.

2) Use the Synchronisation function https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization . This won't copy them to the local folder you created but it will keep a copy locally

[#12]

@FuzzyBear Where did the content of post #8 come from?

Also, can you post a screenshot of your TB 'Home' page - deleting any sensitive information?

[#13]

Post 9 ?

E-mail from the agent I spoke to.

Off out for now. Will get back when I can later today.

[#14]

Sorry , it was post #9.

[#15]

Post #9 oh dear more ill informed drivel from front line support agents.

Yes NEW users do not have email functionality. As for the existing legacy users, there are no plans to take that functionality away … whilst they remain Plusnet broadband users.