gmail over POP3 - anyone else experiencing problems?

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 12:14 AM, Oron Peled <oron at actcom.co.il> wrote:

>
> An (unrelated) question -- any reason to use POP3 instead of IMAP4
> which is also supported by gmail?
>

Only personal quirks: a) I like POP3 better and find it more intuitive, and
b) I prefer the notion of "retrieving" email (with the easy option to
switch between keeping and deleting the original) to "synchronizing" email.

[Stop reading here unless you think more details will interest you.]

Item b) stems from personal history - I started using Gmail just like an
SMTP server/gateway without any intention of actually using it as an "MUA".
Nowadays, I sometimes do use Gmail over the web, but my main modus operandi
still means staying away from the web interface (which I absolutely hate
since it does not organize the information in any way I find useful - I
said it was about personal quirks). And I do like the ability to delete
emails on the server while keeping them on the client.

I also have a much more flexible and powerful
filtering/scoring/classification infrastructure on the client than what
Google offers. IMAP would force me to use the same "folder/label" scheme
with all its limitations. It would be even more awkward given that I
effectively merge mail from more than one account into a single client
(that has the capability of recognizing what
headers/reply-to/signature/etc. to put into outgoing mails when
replying/forwarding) - I suspect IMAPing folders from different accounts
would make a mess, probably in a form of hierarchical structure with
repeated and confusing folder names. [Yes, forwarding everything into one
Gmail account and IMAPing that would solve that particular problem, and I
do this at least for two accounts - but I still POP].

I will not be surprised if modern IMAP allowed me to do all I want the way
I want, but I am quite sure this would be far from its default
configuration.

I do IMAP from my Android phone (Gmail does not support POP for mobile
clients), but I could not find any Android email client that would suit my
needs (Google's own Gmail client is as good - or as bad - as the web
interface, and is OK in this sense, but it does not connect to my office
email). If anyone knows [OT alert!] of something that is configurable like
K9 but does not eat a battery in 20 minutes, let me know.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | pub at goldshmidt.org <oleg at goldshmidt.org>
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