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Do people use "Mail"? I'm confused about it

R

rawdawg

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
550
111
Brooklyn
I have been a longtime Yahoo user. A few years ago I remember trying to push myself to use Mac's Mail program. I set it all up and then realized when I sent emails from my Mac it wasn't showing up on my iPhone (possibly the reverse too, but I don't remember).

It caused big confusion so I ended up deciding to stick with using the interface through a web browser.

I recently set up my own website (through SquareSpace) and wanted to start using my domain email. G Suite is way more then I need and costs $50/year. I went with Zoho instead because it's free and seems legit. I understand I can pay $24/year for it's Workplace (fuller featured) offerings.

Do people reading this use "Mail" and find it good? Am I better off sticking with web interfaces for Yahoo and Zoho separately?

I'm sure there's an explanation why using Yahoo on Mail I wasn't seeing the emails I sent on other devices. Is this normal?

All this POP and IMAP stuff really is over my head. thanks
 
POP was an old, simple email system. Your email app connected to a server, downloaded the emails, then typically deleted them from the server. If you access the server from another machine, the emails are gone. There was an option that it could download without deleting, but it still didn't store your sent messages, or keep track of what emails in your inbox have been read.

IMAP is far better. It manages the email list on the server, tracks what's been read, supports folders on the server for organisation, stores your sent emails.

In terms of setting up, there's very little difference. If your email provider supports it (and almost all do) select IMAP instead of POP in the "Account Type" popup.

I use Mail a lot. Apart from being inept at spam filtering / management, it's fine. :) Web mail clients are greatly improved, but I like the support for mailto: links, keyboard shortcuts etc. that you get with an application email client.
 
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whooleytoo said:
POP was an old, simple email system. Your email app connected to a server, downloaded the emails, then typically deleted them from the server. If you access the server from another machine, the emails are gone. There was an option that it could download without deleting, but it still didn't store your sent messages, or keep track of what emails in your inbox have been read.

IMAP is far better. It manages the email list on the server, tracks what's been read, supports folders on the server for organisation, stores your sent emails.

In terms of setting up, there's very little difference. If your email provider supports it (and almost all do) select IMAP instead of POP in the "Account Type" popup.

I use Mail a lot. Apart from being inept at spam filtering / management, it's fine. :) Web mail clients are greatly improved, but I like the support for mailto: links, keyboard shortcuts etc. that you get with an application email client.
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Thanks for all this great info! When I setup Yahoo in mail it was probably 4 years ago. Maybe I'll give it another go.

Although the lack of Spam filtering is a concern, it appears Yahoo gets rid of a TON of spam. Maybe it will continue to do this even if I set it up as IMAP in Mail?
 
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rawdawg said:
Thanks for all this great info! When I setup Yahoo in mail it was probably 4 years ago. Maybe I'll give it another go.

Although the lack of Spam filtering is a concern, it appears Yahoo gets rid of a TON of spam. Maybe it will continue to do this even if I set it up as IMAP in Mail?
Click to expand...

The spam filtering will still be handled by Yahoo
But honestly, I didn't realize anyone still used Yahoo Mail with all the hacks and breaches they've experienced
 
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Strange. I just double checked (because I never deleted it after I set it up) and it was setup as IMAP in Mail. And I did a test just now and see my sent message appears both on my Mac and my iPhone.

Maybe I'm forgetting the reason this didn't work for me in the past. I was certain I had an issue where I wouldn't see something either on my Mac or on my phone when working through Mail.

Perhaps this is something that others experienced here and has since been fixed by Apple or an updated OS? (I experienced this 4 years ago). Has anyone else experienced this? (sorry so vague on the specifics, it was too long ago but I distinctly remember it getting hard to keep track of correspondences because doing something within "Mail" prevented me from seeing it elsewhere)
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MacDawg said:
The spam filtering will still be handled by Yahoo
But honestly, I didn't realize anyone still used Yahoo Mail with all the hacks and breaches they've experienced
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Haha, I know some people who still use Hotmail! Yes, Yahoo is a bit old, but I actually know many who still use it. Usually I say "hey, I have a yahoo account" but they don't recognize the rarity it's becoming.

I never did GMail because someone else already took my name.

Re: my more recent reply. I really wish I could remember the actual issue I was having. It was definitely a deal breaker. And I'm afraid to try it again because it was such a pain to not have access to those emails. (much of my work requires having emails all accessible, especially if it's within a few weeks)

I think Yahoo has upgraded threading feature during the past 4 years when I last tried Mail. Perhaps it could be working now because of a fix on Apple'e end?
 
Users with mulitple accounts generally like to use Mail so they have one place to go to see their email. However, since you are comfortable with using your browser to view your emails, i suggest you stick with it. Mail can have it's issues that you will never see with webmail. Also takes up lots less space on your drive.
 
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Mail has a lot of pretty great features (smart mailboxes, filtering, formatting options) that people often don't realize are there. Plus there's the benefit of having your email there and available offline when you have a flaky or non-existent connection.

I've tried quite a few alternatives over the years (Sparrow, Airmail, Inbox...) and nothing has ever worked as well or been as well integrated into the MacOS as Mail has always been.
 
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Not adding anything new here, but do want to reinforce what others have said about POP vs. IMAP.

I've used Apple Mail exclusively over the years rather than a web interface. But until last year my main email was a private domain set up as a POP account. It was a continual struggle to keep my mobile devices synched and to manage when each email was erased. Traveling was a real pain. I switched to an IMAP account (FastMail) last year and WOW - what a difference!! Now everything synchs perfectly and effortlessly. My main interface continues to be Apple Mail, both on my iMac and my phone/ipad.

One thing I really like with Apple Mail is the ability to have a fairly elaborate set of mailboxes set up to store email content locally on my iMac. Over the years I've developed a folder system that stores much of my day-to-day content that I want to keep. The search function makes it very easy to locate what I'm looking for. And the same folder structure hosts content from multiple email accounts in one place. That is, email from my business private domain over the past decade, my current FastMail Email IDs and aliases, and my G-mail account that is a backup, all share the same storage structure. I like that.
 
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On recent installs, when you set up Mail.app, it defaults to IMAP.

I've always been a POP user and still run Mail.app that way -- but then, I have nothing to "sych" to it. I prefer the simpler operating paradigm of POP to IMAP. I'll remain a POP user until it no longer exists. Only then will I switch to something else.

I've tried using web-based interfaces for email, and can't understand how anyone could put up with it!
 
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Fishrrman said:
On recent installs, when you set up Mail.app, it defaults to IMAP.

I've always been a POP user and still run Mail.app that way -- but then, I have nothing to "sych" to it. I prefer the simpler operating paradigm of POP to IMAP. I'll remain a POP user until it no longer exists. Only then will I switch to something else.

I've tried using web-based interfaces for email, and can't understand how anyone could put up with it!
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I wonder if maybe years ago when I tried this is what setup as POP, and then somehow over the years when I wasn't using it it automatically switched to IMAP (OS upgrade?). Because it seems to be performing fine now.

EDIT: I did some googling. It does appear this was an issue of constant irritation years past. I've found these links: 1, 2, 3, 4. They all had workarounds. Thing is I don't remember ever performing any of the solutions.

On Link #2 (and maybe 3 & 4 too) they mention how there were two separate "Sent" folders. One simply "Sent", the other "Sent Messages". This sounds very familiar and probably the issue I was experience regarding my desktop and iPhone having it's own separate sent folder perhaps, which caused me to not see them all. Maybe there was a fix of sorts that happened when I wasn't looking.

EDIT 2: Does anyone know when (if) Mac's Mail app got rid of (or changed) it's "Sent Messages" folder? I think that was the root of my issue.
 
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I use Mail.app for most of my mail and after testing many other/newer programs I stick with Mail.app because it is simple, flexible, uniquely customizable, and business oriented. All those colorful graphical features of some newer applications are distracting from business and additions of smart features are scaring me. They are trying to help me - yeah, like you know better than me what to add to my calendar and what not...
That said, junk mail filtering in Mail.app is poor...

Do not remember having my sent mail in anything else than "Sent" (I have been using Mail.app since ~2008 or before). You can customize how Mail.app folders are matched to folders on line - in the Preferences>Accounts you can customize Mailbox behavior and link web folders (mailboxes) to Mail.app mailboxes.

Actually -- my Mail.app shows 5 folders in "Sent", each with name of its account - as you can see I have 5 accounts. All sent mail can be found in the "Sent" folder in the specific account folder. There are, however, some other folders listed under those accounts:
1. Two Exchange accounts have (empty) "Sent messages" folder as well as other (empty) folders, like "RSS subscriptions". I suspect these were not created by Mail.app by some other client I used - or may be by Exchange itself. They are empty anyways, so who cares.
2. One Gmail account has "Sent" folder and no "Sent messages". It is empty.
3. Second Gmail account has "Sent" and "Sent messages" folders, both are empty.
 
rawdawg said:
...

I never did GMail because someone else already took my name.
Click to expand...

LMAO ... with your name and you being from Brooklyn ... it's all about the skinz. I cannot imagine the response or eyebrow lifts you may have seen when giving out your email address at a retailer, job interview etc. But it's a cool net-name still. :cool:
 
I use mail, and I'm happy with it. My needs are not extensive and its one of those, it just works things.
 
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I personally do not like mail app. nothing wrong with it but just me.

I use thunderbird and have my gmail, yahoo and hotmail all in it as map of course so my android phone can also get the messages too.
 
I have been using Mail with my own domain since there is Mail (17 years now) and with Yahoo since Yahoo supports IMAP (which I don't remember when they did, but must be over 10 years). I haven't had any problems with it.

I understand that people prefer other e-mail applications, but using a web interface for e-mail is a horrible idea in my opinion.
 
rawdawg said:
Thanks for all this great info! When I setup Yahoo in mail it was probably 4 years ago. Maybe I'll give it another go.

Although the lack of Spam filtering is a concern, it appears Yahoo gets rid of a TON of spam. Maybe it will continue to do this even if I set it up as IMAP in Mail?
Click to expand...

I would question this statement... in my experience, Yahoo mail IS spam... it was a nightmare when I tried to use it, back in the day.

To answer the original question, I do use Apple's Mail app... with Cox.net email addresses, with Gmail addresses and with company email through Google's G-Suite... works well for me... Everything is set up as IMAP, but everything is available on each device by looking at the respective "All Mail" view on my iMac, my iPad and my iPhone.
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altusan said:
I use "Spark" with multiple accounts and I love it
Click to expand...

I tried Spark, but kicked it to the curb because of the way email threads are presented... the only option is to see them as a "hunk of mail". I much prefer to see single messages... it's just easier for me to see what is there... when using the Spark threaded interface, I always seem to miss something... or archive something before I actually am able to see/read it.
 
I use Apple Mail to sync two Gmail IMAP accounts across about a dozen devices: an iPhone, two iPads, and multiple Macs running OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.11, and MacOS 10.13. I also use the Gmail web interface from Windows PC's at work occasionally. My Gmail accounts total around 50,000 messages. Everything syncs flawlessly.
 
You can use Gmail as a POP client for any domain. I've been using it like that for like 10 years.
 
rawdawg said:
I have been a longtime Yahoo user. A few years ago I remember trying to push myself to use Mac's Mail program. I set it all up and then realized when I sent emails from my Mac it wasn't showing up on my iPhone (possibly the reverse too, but I don't remember).

It caused big confusion so I ended up deciding to stick with using the interface through a web browser.

I recently set up my own website (through SquareSpace) and wanted to start using my domain email. G Suite is way more then I need and costs $50/year. I went with Zoho instead because it's free and seems legit. I understand I can pay $24/year for it's Workplace (fuller featured) offerings.

Do people reading this use "Mail" and find it good? Am I better off sticking with web interfaces for Yahoo and Zoho separately?

I'm sure there's an explanation why using Yahoo on Mail I wasn't seeing the emails I sent on other devices. Is this normal?

All this POP and IMAP stuff really is over my head. thanks
Click to expand...
I love the built in Mail app. Though Outlook 365 is quite nice as well. Though in High Sierra I seem to have to quit and relaunch Mail more than I have to on other versions of the OS. But in short I find it easy to use, quick, responsive and does what it needs to do. Also smart mailboxes are awesome.
 
davidmartindale said:
I love the built in Mail app. Though Outlook 365 is quite nice as well. Though in High Sierra I seem to have to quit and relaunch Mail more than I have to on other versions of the OS. But in short I find it easy to use, quick, responsive and does what it needs to do. Also smart mailboxes are awesome.
Click to expand...


Why do you have to quit and relaunch it?
 
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