Google is killing the POP Checkmail feature in Gmail

[RFK]

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719?hl=en

Learn about changes to POP connections
Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts through POP.
The option to "Check mail from other accounts" will no longer be available in Gmail on your computer.

[TenFour]

Really bad news! How did you learn about this? I use both POP and Gmailify and have not received any information direct from Google about this. But, it appears you can still add IMAP accounts, which should work for most.

[hadaso]

This will affect Gomailify, that partially depends on POP3 retrieval by Gmail.

[TenFour]

Originally Posted by hadaso

This will affect Gomailify, that partially depends on POP3 retrieval by Gmail.

I use Gomailify too! This little change will be a big pain for me personally. I wonder why they are doing it? This also points out one of the problems with using multiple different email accounts. Some will now say use something like Thunderbird to consolidate all on the desktop, which I may do, but I do prefer having it all online so I do not depend on a local machine. In my personal experience with multiple catastrophic computer failures, your local machines are the least reliable part of our digital lives. Plus, I move around a lot.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by TenFour

... your local machines are the least reliable part of our digital lives. Plus, I move around a lot.

My local machines have the worst sys admin I know ...

[TenFour]

Originally Posted by hadaso

My local machines have the worst sys admin I know ...

So many use laptops as their main or only PC these days, and with many of them they are essentially unrepairable. If something breaks you can lose everything on the machine. I recently recycled a box of failed and old laptops at Staples. I had forgotten how many old laptops I had hanging around!

[hadaso]

All the important data I have on my laptop I sync to portable storage regularly. The same folders now are also synced to Pcloud, and the folders that are related to my work in the Open University are also synced to my office desktop and to a network drive at the university, so I have now 5 copies of my work stuff, one in a different continent, one always in my pocket, and two of the four located about 30 miles apart. I try not to keep anything important on my phone, because phones tend to become inaccessible when the screen breaks, or when the USB port contacts wear out, which happens when they are a few months after warranty, be cause they are built to not last much longer.

[TenFour]

Originally Posted by hadaso

All the important data I have on my laptop I sync to portable storage regularly. The same folders now are also synced to Pcloud, and the folders that are related to my work in the Open University are also synced to my office desktop and to a network drive at the university, so I have now 5 copies of my work stuff, one in a different continent, one always in my pocket, and two of the four located about 30 miles apart. I try not to keep anything important on my phone, because phones tend to become inaccessible when the screen breaks, or when the USB port contacts wear out, which happens when they are a few months after warranty, be cause they are built to not last much longer.

Sounds like you are well covered except for the circumstance I have experienced where the laptop dies in between regular backups! Yes, most stuff will still be available on old backups, but you do lose current work. And, then there is the problem of restoring from backups, which I have found not to be seemless, to say the least. Much easier to just be able to login to my main Gmail account from any computer and have everything all there, no matter what happens to the local machines.

[RFK]

If we exclude Russian email services Mail.ru and Yandex (connectivity is partially blocked because of Russian censorship, allso, the featch of Yandex is not reliable), I know only two email services (both paid) that still have this functionality: Runbox and Fastmail

I migrated my POP3 Fetch to Runbox and created the rules that redirect fetched emails into my Gmail mailbox.

[TenFour]

Originally Posted by RFK

If we exclude Russian email services Mail.ru and Yandex (connectivity is partially blocked because of Russian censorship, allso, the featch of Yandex is not reliable), I know only two email services (both paid) that still have this functionality: Runbox and Fastmail

I migrated my POP3 Fetch to Runbox and created the rules that redirect fetched emails into my Gmail mailbox.

I use Gmailify to sync my main Gmail account to another account to create a backup, and Gomailify (Gmailify and Gomailify are different) to receive and send my domain emails. I'm assuming you'll be able to link two Gmail accounts via IMAP in the future via Gmail on the web, but not sure. Or, do you have to combine accounts in the Gmail app on your phone and then they will also appear on desktop? Seems like they need to send out a detailed explanation to all Gmail users of POP and Gmailify.

[RFK]

Originally Posted by TenFour

I use Gmailify to sync my main Gmail account to another account to create a backup, and Gomailify (Gmailify and Gomailify are different) to receive and send my domain emails. I'm assuming you'll be able to link two Gmail accounts via IMAP in the future via Gmail on the web, but not sure. Or, do you have to combine accounts in the Gmail app on your phone and then they will also appear on desktop? Seems like they need to send out a detailed explanation to all Gmail users of POP and Gmailify.

Gmailify is only for pre-defined services and you can't create more than one Gmailify record

Also, Google issues warning that starting from Jan 2025 Gmailify functionality will be limited (no filters, no search etc.)

Gomailify is irrelevant in jy case, I am fetching emails from regular email services.

[trikotret]

Originally Posted by TenFour

I use Gomailify too! This little change will be a big pain for me personally. I wonder why they are doing it? This also points out one of the problems with using multiple different email accounts. Some will now say use something like Thunderbird to consolidate all on the desktop, which I may do, but I do prefer having it all online so I do not depend on a local machine. In my personal experience with multiple catastrophic computer failures, your local machines are the least reliable part of our digital lives. Plus, I move around a lot.

I use it too. I emailed them about it and this is what they said "We'll replace that part with our own, simpler feature before they switch it off".

No idea how can they replace POP Gmail. I do get spam notices in Gomailify logs but are legit emails. So Gmail would pull the emails thru POP.

[just1acc]

Any alternative solution /provider?

[jeffpan]

Originally Posted by just1acc

Any alternative solution /provider?

thunderbird.

[TenFour]

I still haven't received notification from Google about this change and I continue to use POP3 with Gomailify. If they don't notify anyone there will be lots of lost emails in January.