WP8 Pop email deletes email ALWAYS

[Richard Smith2]

Hi all,

Just got an HTC 8S and set it up for use with my business POP email account (I did have an iPhone3).
When an email is downloaded from the account it is deleted from the server regardless of whether it is deleted from the phone. This is a major problem and makes the windows phone unusable for business email, my main use after the phone itself.

For me (and I guess a lot of other business users) It is very important that email records are central on my office PC but I can check and reply to them them when out of the office. i.e. a purchase receipt or urgent request. I check email my phone but also need it on the office outlook for consistency. This is why there is the option to BCC myself when replying to an email on the phone.
Case today: I have just received an email from a customer with a link to a site he wants me to look at. I received it on my phone and when I go to my PC to look at the site the email is gone from the server. I now have to forward the email to myself from the phone to recover the link but this breaks the email chain on the PC. If I had deleted the email from my phone then the message would have been lost.

Anyone know a workaround, otherwise I am an going to have to ditch the windows phone.

This was flagged in WP7, but its worse now (at least that just deleted messages when you deleted them from the phone). This kills the windows phone for me if there is no fix.
My overall impression is WP8 is built around the gamer/casual user and not suitable for business use, if MS is wanting to drive business users into the arms of Apple then its not doing a bad job.

Richard

 

[Chregu]

Have you set the option, to leave a copy on the server?

Go into your mail account, choose settings, choose sync settings, there should be an option for this. I have used multiple POP3 accounts and never had this problem.

But it's true that deleted mails will always be deleted on the server. And this is terrible. The best workaround for this, and for everything mail related: Why don't you just set up your mail with IMAP?

 

[Richard Smith2]

Thanks for the advice, however there is no option, I agree there should be.

 

[Lee B]

I use imap instead of pop (because imap keeps the mail on the server, so I can check from any device anywhere, and both incoming and sent mail will be there). But I figured it didn't make sense for the phone to erase all the mail without giving you a choice. So I set up one of my mailboxes as a pop account (in a box where it wouldn't matter if everything got erased) on my Nokia 822. It set up with no problems, and downloaded all the mail in the box to the phone. Even going into advanced settings, it didn't offer a choice about keeping messages, but that didn't matter because it left all the mail on the server.

I can't figure out why your phone would be deleting all your mail, but I'm pretty sure that isn't normal behavior. You may want to check if there is any setting at your mail provider that could affect this, or with tech support at the vendor who sold you the phone.

 

[realwarder]

IMAP is a good solution... or if you're stuck with POP, you can use Outlook.com as a free gateway - it will correctly read your POP email but then expose it as IMAP/EAS to your phone.

 

[PhotoAnt]

My gmail does not sync with the server. When I've read or deleted emails on my L920, it does not sync and update on my other devices/pc. There is no settings on the email settings to manage the options.

 

[realwarder]

My gmail does not sync with the server. When I've read or deleted emails on my L920, it does not sync and update on my other devices/pc. There is no settings on the email settings to manage the options.

Are you sure that the other devices don't have the issue. The way to check is to sign into gmail.com web site and then read an email on your phone. Then hit sync on the phone. On the website hit refresh and they should match.

The sync is normally automatic, but clicking refresh/sync manually just speeds things up.

If the website is matching the phone, then your other PCs are the issue.

 

[gameovertime]

I'm on the other side of this issue (I think). I understand the business case for retaining a copy on the server and not exclusively on the phone.
At this time though, I would like to have deleted mail from the phone ALSO delete from the server without having to delete the mail from the server. Is there a way to configure the e-mail accounts to do this?