topic Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail? in Email

Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

LizMac42 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 15:40:43 GMT

Hi,

Just got the message my plusnet email folder will soon be archived. I have too many pages to delete individually and I seem unable to delete a whole page - Can I download all to an external hard drive to be dealt with later?

Any help gratefully received

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 16:41:43 GMT

@LizMac42 As I use a mail client, I'm not 100% sure of this, but from what I remember, there is the possibility in webmail to select individual messages by ticking the box to the left. If you want to delete a page at a time, you can select all the messages on the current page by going to the 'selector' - right hand box on the title bar next to the 'Subject' header, left click it, and then it will give you options for selection ('All' 'current page'...). If you are certain you wish to delete everything on that page, select that option, then hit the 'delete button' - the red circle. That will move them to deleted folder, where you do exactly the same to permanently remove them.

NOTE, however, that this can be an extremely slow process.

Sorry, but I don't THINK there is an option to 'download all to an external hard drive to be dealt with later'

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

LizMac42 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:06:01 GMT

jab 1 Thank you for this reply especially for advice on how to delete a page or many together - so useful.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

LizMac42 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:07:36 GMT

I do have the PLUSNET emails through Outlook too - so maybe there is a way to export them through this

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:08:30 GMT

No problem, Liz. Another suggestion which may help is to select 'basic webmail on the 'home' page.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:10:39 GMT

@LizMac42 wrote:

I do have the PLUSNET emails through Outlook too - so maybe there is a way to export them through this

This raises another question - is your OUTLOOK client set up as a 'POP' or 'IMAP' client?

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

Townman — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:18:45 GMT

The most pragmatic solution is to stop using webmail and use a device based email application in IMAP mode. There are lots out there, done free, some paid for, some excellent and some utterly useless.

The crown free and most utterly useless is the email application which ships with windows. The email application on iDevices is fairly good. Outlook 2019 is really decent but costs money.

Thunderbird is OK and free.

IMAP email clients sync the content of a mail server with the device it is running in. Therein you can create LOCAL folders and move mail (received and sent) to those local folders, which will remove them from the server. Remember to regularly back up those local folders.

Remember to empty the deleted items folder.

Some might suggest using a POP3 client … which is fine for the inbox, but does not include the content of the other folders.

Culling mailbox contents

If you need to clean out your mailbox, may be because it is over quota, then as well as tidying up the inbox, you need to also look at the SENT ITEMS folder and then afterwards clear out the TRASH folder. However some times webmail performance can make this process very tedious, particularly if the delete action (actually a move to the trash folder) fails.

If you primarily want to delete emails, you can mitigate delete performance issues by doing an "immediate" delete (rather than a move to trash for deletion later) by holding down the SHIFT key when pressing the DEL key. This works in both webmail and most PC based email clients. WARNING SHIFT+DEL is not recoverable so be certain absolutely, that you do not need the email before pressing the buttons!

Alternatively, in webmail (Round Cube) Settings -> Server Settings there are some options worth exploring controlling how deletes are performed...

Flag the message for deletion instead of delete
If moving messages to "Deleted Items" fails, permanently delete them
Compact Inbox on logout

Setting these options and using them together will avoid the over heads of moving items to the trash folder when you wish to delete them. They will simply be greyed out and remain in the inbox list. After logging out of webmail, they will then be removed from the mailbox.

Whilst this might be highly proficient, it needs to be used with care, for when they are gone, they are gone. Note also that Plusnet house-keeping clears out the trash folder weekly.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:24:28 GMT

Thanks, @Townman . As the OP has said she uses Outlook, I am wondering how that is set up, and why Webmail even comes into the equation. If used/set up correctly, surely webmail is redundant?

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

Townman — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 21:18:28 GMT

Thanks John,

That will teach me answering questions whilst down at the pub - I missed the reference to “Outlook”. Depending on which version, local folders are not so straight forward.

Indeed, if outlook is in use … why is there any discussion about webmail.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 06:21:35 GMT

Don't know the answer to your question, @Townman . With all due respect to the OP, I'm suspecting a lack of knowledge.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

LizMac42 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:20:25 GMT

I use Outlook all the time but I sometimes have to go to webmail as the Plusnet flow of new mail into my Outlook is so slow. If I am waiting for a code to be sent, logging onto the webmail is sometimes quicker.

I used to use Thunderbird and really liked it however when I had to have a new hard drive I couldn't get Thunderbird back up to working again. Nobody at Plusnet Technical managed to help either, despite several phone calls - nothing worked - so I had to resort to the free Outlook app which I hate as it has no ribbon. Gmail allows you to make folders but you can't do this with Plusnet emails.

As you must have noticed I am an 80+ technology moron so am grateful for forums like this and thank you for all your replies.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

LizMac42 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:29:12 GMT

Thank you Townman for so much useful advice. I used to use Thunderbird but couldn't get it working on my new computer despite Plusnet Technical trying to help. I tried all ways but then gave up and resorted to free Outlook which is VERY basic and new Plusnet emails take ages to come through.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 11:25:16 GMT

@LizMac42 Have you been able to reduce your mailbox following previous suggestions?

To be honest, I suspect your Outlook client has been set up as IMAP, which, if you only use one device/computer for collecting mail, is, IMHO, not the best option for an older person. Re-reading this topic, something doesn't seem right, as Outlook should retrieve mail as quick as webmail, but it is difficult to determine what the issue is without either (a) very clear explanation of the issues or (b) actually seeing the setup.

With regards to the problem setting up Thunderbird on the 'new' machine, I suspect that is due to the attempt by that client (and many others) to try and be 'helpful' in guessing setup details - and getting them wrong - in 'non-standard' environments such as the Plusnet one.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

Townman — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:18:42 GMT

@jab1

It is not so much that Plusnet is “non-standard” as email clients making presumptive decisions about the right configuration. There are indeed often used conventions but those are not “standards” as such (no RFC).

Liz,

If you want to have another go at setting up Thunderbird, I’m sure there is enough skill around here to help you get it working.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:23:25 GMT

Fair enough, @Townman . How many ISPs use sub-domains for individual users though, as this seems to be where some email clients get their elastic in a twist?

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

Townman — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:44:13 GMT

All the better hosting providers use sub domains as that is (effectively) the user’s personal address space and facilities the freedom to have whatever email addresses a user chooses.

Those not providing sub domains as single individual email addresses. For a single individual using a single address for everything the Plusnet approach might seem unnecessary, but for families or where one wants to use different email addresses to isolate senders, the Plusnet approach is a godsend.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:50:19 GMT

No argument with any of that. My concern is the clients propensity to make (sometimes incorrect) assumptions when trying to be 'helpful'.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

LizMac42 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:14:41 GMT

Thanks again jab1 - I found the 'tick all 'icon and checking spam and sent helpful so I am steadily working my way through those emails between new hard drive and setting up Outlook. Regarding the Thunderbird - Plusnet gave me all sorts of numbers and words to try and none of them worked - one even got the manager to try. They don't seem to know a lot about email setups! Because my previous hard drive (in an eighteen month Acer!!) failed suddenly - I lost all my recent stuff which hadn't been backed up.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

jab1 — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:26:22 GMT

OK Liiz - just don't forget to empty the 'Deleted' folder, otherwise your utilisation percentage won't change - until you do that, the mail is still on the server.

As regards setting up TB - if you ever want to try again - let us know, and someone will guide you. I set mine up many years ago when they weren't so 'helpful', so you had to enter all the details manually - these days they 'guess' a lot of the settings, and quite often get them wrong.

Re: Can You Download Plusnet Emails from Webmail?

pvmb — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 18:10:47 GMT

Direct download of Plusnet emails to a PCs hard disk was discussed on a thread a few weeks ago:

Saving Emails

https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Saving-Emails/td-p/1913146

The downloaded files are in a suitable format for use by an email client such as Mozilla Thunderbird.