setting up Plusnet email on Android

[#1]

I have been trying to set up my Plusnet email account on my Android smartphone.  I'm using the K-@ Mail app, which can manage several email accounts and display them separately (unlike gmail....).
I have successfully and easily set up my virgin.net and a BT internet email account in K-@ Mail and they work fine, for both sending and receiving emails..
I have gone through the same setup routine for my Plusnet email account - following the steps in the Plusnet setup guide for Android at http://www.plus.net/support/email/setup/android-setup.shtml#.  I am aiming to use IMAP in all cases.
The K-@ mail app appears to accept and establish my Plusnet account.  The account appears correctly on the display on my mobile.  BUT..... it tells me there are no messages.  When I get it to poll or fetch messages, it says there are none - even when I have sent test messages to my Plusnet address from one of my other email accounts using my laptop.
It is a one-way problem, because I have been able successfully to SEND emails FROM my Plusnet account using K-@ Mail on my Android mobile.  But the problem seems to be that inbound emails addressed TO my Plusnet account can't be "fetched" down on to my mobile. 
I confess that I don't understand all the tech details of servers, authentication, ports etc, but I have followed the guidance to the exact letter.  I have even tried deleting and re-setting using the "relay" server address instead of the "smtp" one.  Makes no difference.  I can send messages out from the Plusnet account on my mobile, , but can't fetch or receive inbound ones.    So far I have not found an FAQ or a troubleshooting help page which explains how to resolve this particular problem.  I hope someone can pinpoint what needs to be done to sort it out.

[#2]

Hi, I suspect you don't have the correct username configured. Most Android mail clients I've used ( I now use k9 mail ) try and auto setup from the email address you enter. This doesn't work for PlusNet and you need to manually enter the username and password ( usually somewhere like the incoming server settings... ).
If you are using your main Plusnet email address then it is Your Account username & Account password ( the ones you log in to the member centre with )
If you are using an an additional  Plusnet email address then it is your mailbox username (in the format username+mailboxname) & Your mailbox password.
If that still doesn't work then I suggest firts logging into webmail to check that you really have emails there. The username & passwords for webmail are exactly the same as you need to use in the mail client . See here for details of how to use webmail  http://www.plus.net/support/email/webmail-roundcube.shtml.
Hope that helps. Post back if you need more help.

[#3]

Thanks, MisterW.  I'll try to be methodical about this.  Taking your points in order....
- I did set up the account manually, entering all the details step-by-step;
- I am using my main PlusNet email address, so I have indeed entered my username and password - the same ones that I use for logging in to the member centre (so I know they are correct and work....)
- NB I can send emails successfully from the Plusnet account I have set up on my mobile, which suggests that most of the account setup details are correct.  The difficulty is that I cannot get incoming emails (which are on the server and visible in webmail) to appear in the K-@ Mail inbox on my mobile.
- although I normally get my emails on my laptop (using Outlook Express) I do periodically check my PlusNet webmail directly (logging in using the username + mailboxname format).  So I know how to do that, and it works.  I have just done so..... and I find a couple of interesting things:
- there are certainly a couple of new and unread emails sitting in my webmail inbox (while the K-@ mail app on my mobile still says "no messages");
- in my webmail inbox I also see the two test messages I sent last night from my virgin.net account to my Plusnet address, when I was checking to see if they would come through to my mobile;
- those two test messages did not reach my K-@ Mail inbox on my mobile.  But they appeared as normal in Outlook Express on my laptop, where I have checked them.  So they were successfully transmitted and show in my Webmail as having been read.
Which raises what might be a dumb question.  Emails sent to my Plusnet address are being downloaded on to my laptop (as has been the practice for years), and clearly a copy remains on the server in the Webmail Inbox.  But does the fact that a message has been downloaded to OE/laptop mean that K-@ Mail on my mobile somehow can't, or won't , then "see" or download it on to my mobile?
However if that were true, then the two new unread messages showing today in my Plusnet webmail should appear on my mobile, as they haven't yet been accessed via OE/laptop.  But K-@ mail still says firmly "no messages" when I try to download.....
So I am still baffled. 

[#4]

Ok, so you seem to have a pretty good grasp of what you should be doing, but there's a couple of things you say that confuse me...

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- I am using my main PlusNet email address, so I have indeed entered my username and password - the same ones that I use for logging in to the member centre (so I know they are correct and w

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I do periodically check my PlusNet webmail directly (logging in using the username + mailboxname format).  So I know how to do that, and it works.  I have just done so..... and I find a couple of interesting things: - there are certainly a couple of new and unread emails sitting in my webmail inbox (while the K-@ mail app on my mobile still says "no messages"); - in my webmail inbox I also see the two test messages I sent last night from my virgin.net account to my Plusnet address, when I was checking to see if they would come through to my mobile;

It sounds like you are accessing a different mailbox on webmail, since you are using the username+mailboxname whereas on K-@ Mail you are using the main account details. Is that correct ? if so you need to change the username on K-@ Mail to the username+mailboxname.

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But does the fact that a message has been downloaded to OE/laptop mean that K-@ Mail on my mobile somehow can't, or won't , then "see" or download it on to my mobile?

As long as they all use IMAP then they will all see them ( unless they are manually deleted from the server ). The best check is that if Webmail can see them then K-@ Mail should.

[#5]

Quote from: MisterW

Ok, so you seem to have a pretty good grasp of what you should be doing, but there's a couple of things you say that confuse me...

I'd be the first to admit that I'm a bit confused myself!

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It sounds like you are accessing a different mailbox on webmail, since you are using the username+mailboxname whereas on K-@ Mail you are using the main account details. Is that correct ? if so you need to change the username on K-@ Mail to the username+mailboxname.

Aha - this may be the nub of it.  I confess that I have never fully grasped the distinction between having to use username and password for Your Account, and username + mailboxname for the Webmail account.  I don't have multiple identities on PlusNet, and in my simple mind I thought I just had one mailbox (from which I could pull down emails into OE on laptop, and/or which I could read via browser and Webmail login).  The emails I get on my laptop are the same as the ones I see if I log in to Webmail.  It's many years since I set up Outlook Express to access my Plusnet emails, but I am pretty sure I used the Your Account details.  I will now try re-setting up my account on K-@ Mail on the mobile using what I think of as the 'webmail' combination - ie username+mailboxname.  

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As long as they all use IMAP then they will all see them ( unless they are manually deleted from the server ). The best check is that if Webmail can see them then K-@ Mail should.

That was indeed my understanding, and the reason why I had always believed that I should configure IMAP rather than POP3 if setting up to receive emails on more than one device.
I'm off to try and re-do my mobile account settings.  Watch this space..... and thanks!

[#6]

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I confess that I have never fully grasped the distinction between having to use username and password for Your Account, and username + mailboxname for the Webmail account.

I'll try and explain...
On your account you have a default mailbox ( usually username@username.plus.com I think !) , this is the mailbox for which mail is collected if you use the main account details. You can create other mailboxes ( as many as you like ) of the form mailboxname@username.plus.com, these you collect mail individually from using the username+mailboxname details. The defaut mailbox  is also usually the 'catch all' so any mail addressed to someone@username.plus.com for which a mailbox doesn't exist , gets put in there.
You can see what your default and mailboxes are by going to 'manage my mail' in the member centre https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=myemail&s=1&redirected=yes&?membermenu=emailsettings and click manage my mail and then click the mailboxes tab ( you will need to login of course! ).

[#7]

Yay! Success!
Thanks MisterW for both your recent helpful posts.  On your latest, above, I shall wrap a towel round my head and make sure I figure out what the various mailboxes are and how they work...
Meanwhile, your earlier detective work was spot on.  I have now deleted and re-created my Plusnet account in K-@mail on my mobile, using the username+mailboxname formula as for accessing Webmail (and putting in the appropriate IMAP server settings).  And hooray - it all works.  A bunch of inbound emails have just appeared on my mobile screen.
So very many thanks both for your expertise and your patience.  The problem (or rather my ignorance) has been overcome.
A final PS.  I debated which email app to use, as I have several email accounts with different providers.  I already have the Android default Gmail app which I use obviously for my gmail account.  I looked at both K9 and K-@ Mail, and plumped for the latter mainly because the way it listed and kept multiple email accounts separately on screen.  I'd just be interested in any comments, good or bad, on K9 mail.

[#8]

I think when it comes to choosing an email app for mobile devices the "best one" is whichever provides features that best meet your needs while being easy to use and reliable.
Since you use IMAP, if you wish you can install and run more than one email app at the same time and compare them. (This works best if sent messages are uploaded to the server.)
However since in your case K-@ Mail seems to tick the boxes I suggest sticking with it.

[#9]

@br1anstorm,
Glad we got you sorted.

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I'd just be interested in any comments, good or bad, on K9 mail

I'd looked at K9 mail in the past but up until recently just used the built in Android mail client. It was only when my Nexus 7 updated to Lollipop and the android client is no more that I went over to K9 mail. It works fine for me but as spraxyt says if K-@ mail works for you then why bother changing.

[#10]

Quote from: br1anstorm

I'd just be interested in any comments, good or bad, on K9 mail.

I've used K9 mail for years as my go to client on Android. Granted, it's not very pretty but it's functionality is unrivalled IMO. The main reason I chose it was due to its ability to properly push email from IMAP accounts using IDLE (there aren't enough clients that do this). K9 keeps mailboxes separate but it also offers the option of combining them into a 'unified mailbox' view should you prefer.

[#11]

Thanks for the interesting comments about K9 mail. 
As I understand it, K-@ Mail is a refinement of, or is derived from, K9 Mail, and is similarly open-source.  I just went for K-@ Mail because it seemed user-friendly especially for late-adopter newbies like me who are only just now discovering the capabilities of smartphones.
MisterW - I hadn't realised the Android email client was no more?  I have a Motorola G 2nd gen with Lollipop, and the Android email app is still there.  I just never attempted to use it because I understood (perhaps wrongly) that it did not offer the facility of keeping multiple accounts separate.  I really don't like a "unified inbox" in which messages from several different accounts all pile up together!
Bob P - perhaps in a year or two I will have learned enough to grasp how useful "pushing email from IMAP accounts using IDLE" might be! 
Thanks again to all...

[#12]

Maybe it's just the Nexus that's lost email. I have a 1st gen moto g but haven't done the lollipop upgrade yet, I'm waiting for 5.1!

[#13]

On the Nexus 7 2013 with lollipop the icon for the old Email app is still there but if you tap it you are told it has moved to Gmail. See attachment.