topic Re: Move to Greenby and pop email in Email

Move to Greenby and pop email

merlin1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:46:03 GMT

I have an email from PN telling me to change the email server to IMAP. I use POP deliberately for one PN email account I have. Can I no longer have a POP account with Greenby?

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

jab1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:51:57 GMT

@merlin1 It would be interesting to see the full content of that message. There is no requirement - AFAIK - to change to IMAP if you do not wish to. Greenby will still support the POP3 protocol.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

MisterW — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:57:12 GMT

I have an email from PN telling me to change the email server to IMAP.

@merlin1 I assume you've received the email suggesting that your email client configuration MAY be not quirte correct and the server should be imap.plus.net!.

I use POP deliberately for one PN email account I have. Can I no longer have a POP account with Greenby?

The email is badly worded, it assumes everyone is using IMAP. You do not need to change to IMAP, and yes Greenby will continue to support POP. There are two server names, imap.plus.net for IMAP and mail.plus.net for POP. Historically they referred to two distinct servers, they now actually refer to the same server and so are interchangeable, the server detects whether its a POP or IMAP connection from the port number used. If you are using POP then it probably makes more sense to use the mail.plus.net name as it is the name originally used for POP

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

jab1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 16:03:30 GMT

@merlin1 Disregard my post - @MisterW is correct.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

merlin1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 16:11:17 GMT

Thanks all for the confirmation that POP will be supported by Greenby

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

PhilipHeyes — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 17:07:03 GMT

With the impending change to a new email provider, I feel this is an ideal time for making sure that email programmes & apps are configured to use your choice of POP3 or IMAP + SMTP all with Credentials and all with Encryption.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

Townman — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:53:01 GMT

There was some detailed discussion on the wording of the emails.

It transpires that whilst a user might predominantly use POP3 if the have used IMAP with the wrong server settings, they will receive an email advising of the correct IMAP settings ... and that has become a source of confusion.

Note that webmail is an IMAP client ... but I would be horrified if that were using the wrong settings

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

eeyore033 — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 10:40:16 GMT

I can confirm that POP3 is working on my migrated free-online accounts. My off-line email client is collecting new email messages from the Greenby servers. I had to make no changes to any POP3 settings - it just worked!

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

ClaireS — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 06:55:08 GMT

Hi there
Could you tell me what the settings should please? I'm a Mail Only free-online customer using POP3 who was migrated on Thursday.
Greenby have so far told me I need to use incoming server imap.free-online.net as the incoming server (because that is also used for POP) and that no, I should use pop.free-online.net because that is the correct one.
However neither works. I can access webmail via my new Greenby login but can't get anything down to Mail on my phone.
Each time I get to a point where the AI bot on my Greenby Support ticket tells me they're passing me to an agent who will be with me "shortly" that's the last I hear. Getting very frustrated and would love to hear some sensible advice from someone who seems to have been through it and come out the other end!
Thanks

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

Townman — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 08:41:33 GMT

You have been given sensible advice ... it really does not matter which of imap.free-online.net or mail.free-online.net you use, they point to the same destination; you just need to set the appropriate port for the required service. The server pop.free-online.net has NEVER been correct, even if it might have worked.

Do you have a logon issue - that is you get and error - or do you logon successfully, but there is no mail found?

If you have a login issue, then try the server connection diagnostics - see the link below.

@plusnettony - is this another suspected account not pointing to the correct server issue?

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

ClaireS — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:11:09 GMT

Hi there
Thanks - I was so hoping it would be you that responded :).
I can log into Greenby (although it does always say "Whoops! Something went wrong" as I log in, but seems to let me in okay. I can access webmail and can see all new messages coming in, but just can't get the darn things to come to my phone.
(Outgoing mail I'm not worried about - I've been using a 3rd party smtp provider for a few years now, since Plusnet stopped offering "send" capability for mail only users.)
I also get "Whoops! Network error" if I try to change my email account password on Greenby. As I mentioned, I'm abroad so don't have access to my password vault (and needed to re-enter the password once I changed the incoming server name), but Plusnet told me I can still use my Plusnet account to change individual email account passwords, which I did. Imap.free-online.net seemed happier with that, but still won't download anything.

As I mentioned, my daughter back in the UK hasn't touched any of her settings, but is still not receiving any new mail.

I'll try the diagnostics later - have to go out for a while so will do when back and connected to wifi again.

Thanks!

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

plusnettony — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:14:07 GMT

I've checked the account and it look to have migrated over successfully.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

Townman — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:20:49 GMT

Years ago Plusnet permitted the use of SMTP to all mail account holders so that SPF can function correctly. I’m astonished that you’ve not had great difficulty sending via a third party using @account.free-online.co.uk - that assures a SPF Validation failure.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

MisterW — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:23:20 GMT

but Plusnet told me I can still use my Plusnet account to change individual email account passwords

I don't know for sure, but I would doubt that's true!

If the account has migrated to Greenby then I would have thought that mailbox passwords would now need to be changed via the Greenby portal ?

Perhaps @plusnettony could confirm that ? .

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

plusnettony — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:58:56 GMT

You'd need to use Greenby to change mailboxes password - Anything to do with email will shortly be deactivated on the Plusnet side, including the closure of the account if it's a Free, Mail only or Residential Services account (all three of those are the same thing).

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

eeyore033 — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 10:18:42 GMT

This is what has worked for me for 20+ years on PlusNet and still successfully retrieving messages this morning on Greenby post-migration.

For incoming POP3, I specify the following settings to retrieve emails from Free-online:

Address: mail.free-online.net

Port: 110

UserID: my username for my Free-online account

Password: my password for my Free-online account

Good luck!

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

ClaireS — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:36:23 GMT

If I try to change passwords for mailboxes on Greenby I just get "Whoops! Error: Network Error".

Also, the latest AI bot at Greenby says instead of entering my username as the previous mainuser+subuser format, I should enter the full email address as my username. Still not working.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

ClaireS — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 07:12:47 GMT

Regarding changing individual email account passwords, how do I do this? I can see the Change Password option under the three dots, but regardless whether I enter a password of my choice (completing all the green bands under the password strength guide) or choosing one of their randomly generated passwords, I just get "Whoops! Error: Network Error".
Greenby support is non-existent. All you get is an AI bot (who granted is very personable and eager to help) but at some point it always gets to "I'm transferring you to an agent, they will be with you shortly" and that's where the chat ends. Not one agent has joined one of my various attempts at a support ticket since Friday.
I don't know what to do. The days are counting down on my 30 day trial period and I can't get mail to download.
Any help or advice would be welcome at this stage.

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

Townman — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 07:35:08 GMT

@plusnettony is this something Plusnet can escalate please?

Re: Move to Greenby and pop email

plusnettony — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 13:31:01 GMT

Yes, I'm just about to raise a couple of things.

Would it be possible though, for you to supply me with a screen shot? Might make it easier to explain. Thanks