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Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

support.google.com

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Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#121

Post by bonzini »

kumarharsh wrote: post #118
seydor wrote: post #115

They are discontinuing fetching from POP server, but fetching from IMAP is not supported either. So they are discontinuing fetching altogether, right? it won't even be available in the paid version, right? why are they being confusing?

IMAP is supported afaik: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78892?hl=en#zippy=

That's fetching from Gmail via IMAP.

With IMAP there's no particular need for fetching from third party accounts. The article itself says that IMAP is supported in the app ("You can still read and send emails from your other account within the Gmail app. This uses a standard IMAP connection, which is supported in the Gmail mobile app"). But indeed this removes altogether the possibility to fetch from third-party accounts into Gmail.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#122

Post by [deleted] »

suzzer99 wrote: post #119

I finally figured out the confusion here. What a terribly worded article. Could mean two different things: 1) Some kind of third-party account (whatever that is) can no longer check (fetch) emails from Gmail via POP. I have a test suite that uses POP to fetch emails from Gmail, so this concerns me. 2) Gmail itself can no longer fetch emails from other email accounts over POP (a feature I had no idea existed). I guess…

[deleted]

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#123

Post by mikaraento »

cracki wrote: post #80

There are two "Gmail" things here: the actual service with a web site (mail.google.com), and an android app on your phone that is called "Gmail". They are axing the "pull" path of the actual service. That path only supported POP for pulling those mails. There never was an IMAP pull path. They are telling you to read your mails of the "other" account by configuring your Gmail app to access it via IMAP. That obviously…

Heads-up to people trying this: Gmail will often put forwarded email into spam. Be careful especially in the beginning to check your spam folder. They may also reject the mail as spam, esp if your volume is large.

IIUC it’s hard to make forwarding to play nicely with DKIM and spf. There’s some disagreement on how to handle it. (I’m being purposefully vague as I did interact with folks handling this on the google side and don’t want to cause them trouble for helping me out).

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#124

Post by teo_zero »

userbinator wrote: post #107
cortesoft wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have an ability to “erase it from their servers”. There is no way to be sure they actually delete anything when you erase it, they could just be hiding the access.

Speaking as someone who worked in a large company before (although perhaps not Google-sized), and several smaller ones, they are very motivated to reduce storage costs whenever possible. Sure they could be "just hiding the access" immediately after you request them to delete, but that storage will likely be overwritten soon by something else.

> they are very motivated to reduce storage costs whenever possible

On the other hand, they are also very motivated to have a large mass of data to train their AI.

Which of the two motivations wins, is debatable. Today I'd bet on AI.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#125

Post by [deleted] »

mikaraento wrote: post #123
cracki wrote: post #80

There are two "Gmail" things here: the actual service with a web site (mail.google.com), and an android app on your phone that is called "Gmail". They are axing the "pull" path of the actual service. That path only supported POP for pulling those mails. There never was an IMAP pull path. They are telling you to read your mails of the "other" account by configuring your Gmail app to access it via IMAP. That obviously…

Heads-up to people trying this: Gmail will often put forwarded email into spam. Be careful especially in the beginning to check your spam folder. They may also reject the mail as spam, esp if your volume is large. IIUC it’s hard to make forwarding to play nicely with DKIM and spf. There’s some disagreement on how to handle it. (I’m being purposefully vague as I did interact with folks handling this on the google side…

[deleted]

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#126

Post by dotwaffle »

jeffbee wrote: post #31
mxuribe wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is a little about storage costs? I mean, at their scale, i imagine the core cost of the actual storage by itself is pretty negligible...but maybe combined with other infra. (beyond storage) that needs to be considered in the total costs related to storing and managing POP pulls...maybe their data shows that it simply wasn't worth it to them to keep said functionality around? But, your comment did mak…

The number of people who actually use this feature to fetch mail into their Gmail account in the year 2025 has got to be pretty damn near zero.

I know a lot of people who use it, in fact I'm one of them.

I have an @gmail.com account with about 20 years of stuff associated with it, from purchases to YouTube subscriptions, from calendars to GCP accounts.

However, I use a vanity email (me@somedomain.example) that everyone I know uses to get hold of me. Until about 10 years ago I could just forward emails but that slowly became unworkable as more and more stuff just broke due to SPF etc. So, I've been using POP pickup (and accepting the 5-30 minute delay) ever since.

As I understand it, I can't move all my gmail.com data into a GWork profile easily, and POP has worked for years. This is very frustrating.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#127

Post by nl »

suzzer99 wrote: post #119

I finally figured out the confusion here. What a terribly worded article. Could mean two different things: 1) Some kind of third-party account (whatever that is) can no longer check (fetch) emails from Gmail via POP. I have a test suite that uses POP to fetch emails from Gmail, so this concerns me. 2) Gmail itself can no longer fetch emails from other email accounts over POP (a feature I had no idea existed). I guess…

"from third-party accounts" is a better worded version of your (2).

Your (1) would be worded in the opposite order.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#128

Post by jonathantf2 »

beejiu wrote: post #60
xp84 wrote: post #41

Hypothesis: This feature is actually a very serviceable way for a small business or individual to have a branded email address on very cheap email hosting, while getting Gmail features for free. Google wants such people to be paying for Google Workspace if they don't want to be advertising the Gmail brand on their address.

Doesn't Google Workspace start at $7 per month? I can't see a business user going to those lengths to save $1 or $2 per month.

I have had multiple people scream at me on the phone for daring to suggest that a new person working needs their own email account and it will cost about £4 ($5.30~) a month

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#129

Post by luckydata »

jonathantf2 wrote: post #128
beejiu wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Google Workspace start at $7 per month? I can't see a business user going to those lengths to save $1 or $2 per month.

I have had multiple people scream at me on the phone for daring to suggest that a new person working needs their own email account and it will cost about £4 ($5.30~) a month

you work for the wrong people

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#130

Post by cyberax »

bigwheels wrote: post #82
bound008 wrote: post #49

I'm not one to defend google, but it seems that they are only ending support for POP accounts, and retaining support for IMAP/SMTP. Seems like a reasonable deprecation for 2025, although they could have given more than a quarter to let people handle the change.

But why do they need to remove the functionality? It's been working fine for around 2 decades. As a user of the feature, this is supremely annoying. They didn't even send me a warning message it will be discontinued.

Likely because one of the backend systems that implements this functionality depends on some deprecated service. And nobody cares enough to port the POP checker to use something new.
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