03-08-2010, 02:07 AM

Hiya, Im a bit confused by the Mail function on my new imac. just swapped from my old pc. Its great, very fast, tons better than going through it in Hotmail.

I was a bit worried that it seems to open most of the mails, but apparently macs cant get a virus.

Whats confusing is that the other day, nearly all my mails in Hotm,ail had been deleted. I shoved them all back to the inbox, and now my mac has two of each! I have about 1000 to go through, mostly junk.

Can I turn off temprarily the automatic opening of mails by the mac as you go through the list in Mail?

Can I stop the mails getting deleted from Hotmail just because they have gone to the mac?

I would like to keep some mail permanently in Hotmail, as a kind of backup.

Hope I explained this properly.

03-08-2010, 02:48 AM

You are using pop to get mail from Hotmail. By default once a mail is downloaded Pop removes it from the server. When you setup your mail there should be a checkbox in one of the setups that says something like leave mail on the server.

Unfortunately you've already downloaded all your mail so it will be a pain to get mails already downloaded to your mail client back to the server (which is what you saw with the doubling of your mail)

I don't use Pop but if you go to Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts -> select your hotmail account - somewhere in the config Probably under advanced should be a choice to leave mail on the server.

03-08-2010, 02:48 AM

Originally Posted by f.furter

Can I turn off temprarily the automatic opening of mails by the mac as you go through the list in Mail?

Yes. There is a "divider bar" that separates the "list" of mails from the "viewer." Just move that divider bar down to the bottom so its all list.

Can I stop the mails getting deleted from Hotmail just because they have gone to the mac?

Yes, that's controlled under the "Advanced" preferences in your account.

I would like to keep some mail permanently in Hotmail, as a kind of backup.

You might want to consider dropping Hotspam, sorry hotmail, and moving to GMail or MobileMe, both of which offer IMAP mail (ie the mail stays on the server unless you want to remove it, and syncs its status across your various devices).

03-08-2010, 03:01 AM

Originally Posted by chas_m

...both of which offer IMAP mail (ie the mail stays on the server unless you want to remove it, and syncs its status across your various devices).

I would like to add that Gmail also allows you to keep mail on the server when using POP. You have to choose the option in Gmail to save it.

I like doing it this way instead of IMAP because I don't want to sync with my Mail app. I like having everything saved as a backup on my Gmail account while I delete emails on my Mail app so it's not so cluttered. If I ever need to find an old email then I just log into Google's Gmail from their website instead of from Mail and then find the old email.

03-08-2010, 12:10 PM

Thanks for all the replies, thats very helpful!

03-20-2010, 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by EndlessMac

I would like to add that Gmail also allows you to keep mail on the server when using POP. You have to choose the option in Gmail to save it.

I like doing it this way instead of IMAP because I don't want to sync with my Mail app. I like having everything saved as a backup on my Gmail account while I delete emails on my Mail app so it's not so cluttered. If I ever need to find an old email then I just log into Google's Gmail from their website instead of from Mail and then find the old email.

May I ask the advantage of getting your e-mail through mail instead of logging on to gmail and reading them. Also when getting e-mail through mail does it look like mail or gmail?

03-20-2010, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by zyepod

May I ask the advantage of getting your e-mail through mail instead of logging on to gmail and reading them. Also when getting e-mail through mail does it look like mail or gmail?

Usually most software based email programs such as Mail have more features than web based emails and in general can be customized to a greater extend than web based email. Things like more advanced email filtering system. It also has an auto check for new message that you can specify the time in between. The emails themselves would look the same because they are mostly text but the layout might be a little different. Obviously the user interface will be different.

It's great for a business email because it will get new email every 5 minutes if you want it too and it will also give you a sound when you have new email so that you don't have to monitor it yourself or you can check the dock icon because it will tell you how many unread emails you have. You can just have it on in the background while doing other stuff. You don't have to constantly manually refresh the email like you do on most web based emails.

The thing I like the most is that you can check all your emails in one area rather than logging onto several different email accounts on the internet. For example, I have a personal email, a business email, and another personal email that I'm trying to no longer use but I still need to check it in case anyone emails me from it. This great for the personal email I don't use often because I can still check it everyday while I check the others. It would be a chore to manually login and check it often on the internet since I hardly get any emails on it anymore so I would become too lazy to even check it. With Mac's Mail software I can check and send all my emails in one area/software.

There are other features I didn't mentioned but not everyone will benefit from these things so not everyone sees the need to use a software based email program. There are also other email software to choose from too such as Thunderbird, etc so if you don't like Mac's Mail then you can try those out too.

03-20-2010, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by EndlessMac

Usually most software based email programs such as Mail have more features than web based emails and in general can be customized to a greater extend than web based email. Things like more advanced email filtering system. It also has an auto check for new message that you can specify the time in between. The emails themselves would look the same because they are mostly text but the layout might be a little different. Obviously the user interface will be different.

It's great for a business email because it will get new email every 5 minutes if you want it too and it will also give you a sound when you have new email so that you don't have to monitor it yourself or you can check the dock icon because it will tell you how many unread emails you have. You can just have it on in the background while doing other stuff. You don't have to constantly manually refresh the email like you do on most web based emails.
The thing I like the most is that you can check all your emails in one area rather than logging onto several different email accounts on the internet. For example, I have a personal email, a business email, and another personal email that I'm trying to no longer use but I still need to check it in case anyone emails me from it. This great for the personal email I don't use often because I can still check it everyday while I check the others. It would be a chore to manually login and check it often on the internet since I hardly get any emails on it anymore so I would become too lazy to even check it. With Mac's Mail software I can check and send all my emails in one area/software.

There are other features I didn't mentioned but not everyone will benefit from these things so not everyone sees the need to use a software based email program. There are also other email software to choose from too such as Thunderbird, etc so if you don't like Mac's Mail then you can try those out too.

Great... Thanks for the very thorough reply... A couple more questions please.
So if I add a gmail account when I open mail does it check both my ISP mail account as well as gmail?

03-20-2010, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by zyepod

Great... Thanks for the very thorough reply... A couple more questions please.
So if I add a gmail account when I open mail does it check both my ISP mail account as well as gmail?

That's only one more question, but yes.

03-21-2010, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by chas_m

That's only one more question, but yes.

Your right... Thanks