topic Re: Pop 3 v Imap in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Pop 3 v Imap

petlew — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 14:29:52 GMT

I have finally bitten the bullet and installed Win 11 with a new computer, after having decided a long time ago that I wouldn't like Win 11. How wrong can you be!!.

I use Thunderbird for email and have done so for many years, My email client is Gmail.

Since the change over to Win 11, when I open Thunderbird I get an error message, that I can simply get rid of by clicking OK, so not a problem it seems, but I'd rather not keep getting the message.

However I try the message won't let me copy/paste it so it is typed out here:

"The STAT command did not succeed. Error getting message number and sizes. Mail server Pop.gmail.com responded: [SYS/PERM] Your account is not enabled for POP access. Please visit your gmail settings page and enable your account for POP access"

I have a suspicion this may have arisen during the initial Win setup from new? But how to get out of it!!

In my Thunderbird the left pane has two (my email accounts) addresses showing, both the same. One (IMAP) has all my email traffic in it, the other (POP3) is completely empty with only the bare minimum of options Inbox, sent etc. Right click to settings in either confirms the Imap, pop3 differences, but doesn't seem to have any way of editing them, and even if there was, what should I do without losing huge numbers of mails.

My previous Win worked perfectly for years, I can't see what the settings differences might be.

Could this be something that should be sorted at the Plus end of things?

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

Gel — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 16:05:43 GMT

To enable POP3 for your Gmail account, go to Settings, select "See all settings," then click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
In the POP download section, choose "Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on" and save your changes.

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

petlew — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 07:54:00 GMT

Thank you Gel.

However, after searching all avenues, right click settings both email addresses in the Thunderbird left pane, Thunderbird settings from main menu (which lead to the same settings page) or even Win 11 settings. I cannot find the "all settings" option you advise.

I tried the pop.gmail.com options as well, but that is basically information and doesn't have any setting options (that I can find anyway).

Should it make any difference my Thunderbird version is: 139.0.2

I guess I can't be looking in the right place?.

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

Dan_the_Van — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:15:12 GMT

@Gel wrote:
To enable POP3 for your Gmail account, go to Settings, select "See all settings," then click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
In the POP download section, choose "Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on" and save your changes.

Hopefully this link should further assist you.

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?sjid=16265282355938581679-EU

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

Champnet — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:36:03 GMT

I rekon I'd be looking at security differences between Win 10 & 11.

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

MisterW — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:48:50 GMT

@petlew first things first, do you have two different gmail accounts that you are trying to collect mail from ?

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

Baldrick1 — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 13:26:10 GMT

Moderator's note:
Thread moved from Email to Tech Help as in is not related to Plusnet Email

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

petlew — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 17:05:51 GMT

@MisterW

No, both gmail addresses appearing in the Win 11 Thunderbird left pane are the same. However right clicking one of them and selecting "settings" shows as Imap, doing the same for the other shows it as Pop 3.

(I did in Win 10 Thunderbird have a second address ((an @plus address)) but decided not to take it to the Win 11 computer).

The Imap address carry's all of my email. The Pop 3 is empty showing only boxes for Inbox, Drafts, sent and Deleted, nothing in any of them.

As I said at the beginning, my email is working well except for the error message at the opening of Thunderbird (every time not just the first from boot).

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

petlew — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 17:25:38 GMT

Just to check, I have just got my Win 10 to boot. In Thunderbird the single gmail address at settings is Imap, the same that has all of my email traffic in Win 11 Thunderbird.

Would simply deleting the Pop 3 in Win 11 Thunderbird easily solve my problem. Or is another can of worms waiting for me if I do?

Sorry I haven't taken what might seem an obvious step before, but getting the recalcitrant Win 10 to oblige can be very time consuming. Hence the new PC.

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

RealAleMadrid — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 17:48:11 GMT

@petlew Not too sure what you are trying to achieve, my rather basic understanding of email is that Pop and Imap are mutually exclusive, that is you use one or the other. Pop downloads emails to your local PC, Imap leaves them on the server so that they can be accessed by other devices such as a phone. So your idea of deleting Pop 3 sounds good to me.

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

MisterW — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:06:24 GMT

@petlew

Would simply deleting the Pop 3 in Win 11 Thunderbird easily solve my problem. Or is another can of worms waiting for me if I do?

yes.. normally deleting a pop account would delete emails that are stored locally for that account but since you say there aren't any, then you should be fine.

It sounds like you accidentally created two accounts when you set up thunderbird

Re: Pop 3 v Imap

petlew — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:56:10 GMT

Yep!! that solved it.

I'd like to thank all the respondents who took the time to look into what seems to have been my own fault.