Gmail: Fetching emails from third-party accounts with POP no longer supported.

[#1]

I am going to try changing the forwarding address in my co.uk email configuration.

It will forward emails sent to <a>@<b>.co.uk to something like <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com

In the Plusnet email config I will add a new redirect to forward <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com to my gmail address <z>@gmail.com.

I have used <a>, <b>, <x>,<y>, <z> here in place of the real strings for security reasons but you get the general idea.

[#2]

Nothing seems to be working...

To simplify things, I used Plusnet Webmail directly to send an email to my Gmail mailbox rather than forwarding from my co.uk address.

I tried sending an email from Plusnet Webmail using the new address (i.e. from <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com to <z>@gmail.com).

Webmail indicated it was sent successfully but nothing arrived in my Gmail Inbox (or Spam).

At first  I wondered if it takes time for the new email address to become active so then I tried using an existing plusnet address.

(i.e. from <x>@<y>.plus.com to <z>@gmail.com).

That also failed to appear in my Gmail inbox.

I am baffled!

I just tried sending an email from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail. That works as expected.

Next I tried sending email from Plusnet Webmail to my MS Outlook address.

Plusnet Webmail displayed an SMTP error 452 (Failed to add recipient): Too many recipient in last hour.

The conclusion is that Plusnet Webmail is not working.

[#3]

Try a loop back test ... Using Plusnet Webmail try sending an email to yourself.

[#4]

The email I sent from my Plusnet Webmail to Gmail using my old Plusnet email address has just arrived in my Gmail inbox.

It was sent at 15:36. It did not arrive until 16:00.

What is going on?

[#5]

A loopback test from Plusnet Webmail using my old plusnet address works.

If I use the newly created <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com address as the destination, the email does not appear back in the Webmail inbox. That's to be expected because Plusnet is configured to forward such emails to my Gmail mailbox. Unfortunately It doesn't appear there either.

[#6]

Try a test that might be expected to work:

Can the newly created <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com address send to your old Plusnet address ?

[#7]

Can the newly created <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com address send to your old Plusnet address ?

Yes - that worked.

[#8]

@briank  , @PhilipHeyes  I suspect, but can't prove, so feel free to disagree, that this the constant long term bad behaviour that we have seen from Gmail (and Microsoft) for a long time. There are long topics on both.

[#9]

I suspect the SPF or DKIM or  DMARC do not remain valid after the email forward process
and Gmail are just dropping such messages into a black hole.


The SPF would not be valid if the path was say :

fred@hp.com sends to jim@domain.plus.com who forwards to jim@gmail.com

Gmail would see the sender as fred@hp.com arriving from a Plusnet mail server so SPF=Fail, message binned.

[#10]

Can someone explain this...

The loopback message I sent from the new <x>_plus@<y>.plus.com to the old Plusnet address <x>@<y>.plus.com has now also appeared in my Gmail inbox !!! (after a delay of several minutes)

The timestamp is 16:37 for both the outgoing Plusnet message and the incoming Gmail message.

Messages sent to my <a>@<b>.co.uk email address still disappear. They don't appear in any Plusnet mailbox and  and are not forwarded to Gmail.

[#11]

Is the Gmail a/c configured to collect messages from the old Plusnet a/c via POP3 ?

[#12]

You may be correct, @PhilipHeyes , but I successfully forward mail from (say) a rail company that arrives in my PN mailbox to a friend who uses Gmail - and also to one of my iCloud addresses, which I have also seen people saying delivery fails on.

[#13]

Is the Gmail a/c configured to collect messages from the old Plusnet a/c via POP3 ?

Yes - I left that unchanged. It could be that POP fetching from Gmail is still working. However during some tests I ran earlier today (before I began tinkering) I asked Gmail to 'check now' shortly after sending a message to my co.uk email address. The message never appeared in Gmail so I assumed that functionality had been removed.

PS: Going for a break and prepare food. Will check back later.

[#14]

@jab1    I am assuming that means you used a Plusnet forwarder and not an email client / webmail.

It would be interesting to see how your iCloud a/c scored the SPF / DKIM / DMARC in the message header / source.

[#15]

@PhilipHeyes I just hit 'forward' in the message, in Thunderbird, but as always, I deleted the original message sender which appears in the body of the 'forwarded' message.