Mail: Accessing one mailbox on two Macs

[IJ Reilly]

I'm setting up my PowerBook for a road trip. I'd like to monitor mail that I normally receive on my desktop Mac while I'm away, but I don't want to delete these messages from the server. I realize that "remove copy from server after retrieving a message" is turned off as the default preference setting for a new accounts in Mail. So far, so good. But what I'd also like to do is be able to delete selected messages, such as spam, so at least I don't need to see them again when I get back to the office. Is this possible?

The drop-down selection "when removed from InBox" under the "remove copy from server after retrieving a message" checkbox, seems like it might do the job, I'm not sure.

BTW, these are POP accounts. I realize the behavior I'm describing is the default for IMAP accounts, such as .mac.

 

[balamw]

BTW, these are POP accounts. I realize the behavior I'm describing is the default for IMAP accounts, such as .mac.

.mac e-mail is IMAP? Hmmm, maybe I should give it a test run.

The POP3 protocol isn't really intended for use this way.

Could you forward your mail to a gmail account while on the trip and just use webmail? You can POP from gmail too, but not IMAP (yet).

B

 

[MisterMe]

I'm setting up my PowerBook for a road trip. I'd like to monitor mail that I normally receive on my desktop Mac while I'm away, but I don't want to delete these messages from the server. I realize that "remove copy from server after retrieving a message" is turned off as the default preference setting for a new accounts in Mail. So far, so good. But what I'd also like to do is be able to delete selected messages, such as spam, so at least I don't need to see them again when I get back to the office. Is this possible?

The drop-down selection "when removed from InBox" under the "remove copy from server after retrieving a message" checkbox, seems like it might do the job, I'm not sure.

BTW, these are POP accounts. I realize the behavior I'm describing is the default for IMAP accounts, such as .mac.

The only way to selectively delete mail from a POP3 account is to login to your ISP's web client. You may delete whichever messages you like. If your ISP doesn't have a web client, then you are secure in the knowledge that your spam filter will continue to work as normal.

 

[jsw]

A less-than-optimal solution which I have employed in the past is to copy my ~/Library/Mail folder from my desktop to my laptop (renaming the laptop's Mail to Mail2 or whatever first). Then I use the laptop exclusively for the trip. Then when I return, I copy the folder back.

This works faster (often) if you archive the giant (in my case) Mail folder, then copy and unzip it at the destination.

I also copy over ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

Not perfect... but Mail looks and acts just as it did on your desktop, and, upon return, the same mail is marked as read, deleted, reorganized, whatever.

Pain in the butt? Yes. But it does work.

 

[balamw]

The only way to selectively delete mail from a POP3 account is to login to your ISP's web client.

That's not quite true. POP3 does offer a DELE command see the RFC http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/Orig/rfc1725.txt, but the problem is that many POP3 servers don't implement it in a way that most client software can actually use it, some will only accept DELE after a successful download of a given message (like in the examples in the RFC).

I also followed something like jsw's approach for the time I didn't have broadband at home. I'd fetchmail my mail to an mbox at work daily, and bring it home on USB key.

B

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

If you're running Mail 2 (don't know if this was a feature in Mail 1) you can click on any Inbox and hit cmd-I to get the Account Info window up.

There you have a tab (for all the POP accounts) named Messages on Server which can be used to remove unwanted messages, so you don't have to re-download those on your desktop machine.

 

[rdowns]

A less-than-optimal solution which I have employed in the past is to copy my ~/Library/Mail folder from my desktop to my laptop (renaming the laptop's Mail to Mail2 or whatever first). Then I use the laptop exclusively for the trip. Then when I return, I copy the folder back.

This works faster (often) if you archive the giant (in my case) Mail folder, then copy and unzip it at the destination.

I also copy over ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

Not perfect... but Mail looks and acts just as it did on your desktop, and, upon return, the same mail is marked as read, deleted, reorganized, whatever.

Pain in the butt? Yes. But it does work.

I've used this method with much success but it is a bit of a pain in the ass.

 

[IJ Reilly]

If you're running Mail 2 (don't know if this was a feature in Mail 1) you can click on any Inbox and hit cmd-I to get the Account Info window up.

There you have a tab (for all the POP accounts) named Messages on Server which can be used to remove unwanted messages, so you don't have to re-download those on your desktop machine.

Oh, now that's cool!

Edit: So now I see where I've got literally hundreds of old e-mails on my mail server, which I can delete. Is there any way to view or download them before deleting them?

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Is there any way to view or download them before deleting them?

I haven't found an easy way...

One way is to get Thunderbird or some other mail client and just configure that to download headers only (skip messages over 10KB or similar), then get mail after you've deleted all those you know you don't want (again)...