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I can't tell whether I use this; the description in the article sort-of matches a feature I use, but not exactly. The feature I use is labelled "Check mail from

I can't tell whether I use this; the description in the article sort-of matches a feature I use, but not exactly. The feature I use is labelled "Check mail from other accounts" and appears in the "Accounts and Import" tab in Gmail web; it causes Gmail to periodically retrieve emails from an external server using POP, and merge them into my main inbox. This article refers to the option "Check mail from other accounts", which matches, but also says "POP only works with a single device", which is false (wrt this feature) and makes me think it may be talking about something different. I'm hearing about this for the first time from HN (not from Google). I don't like having Google randomly drop IT tasks on my plate, and the possibility that emails might just silently stop being delivered is nighmarish. Sigh.

iLoveOncall 1y ago
The top comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45440465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45440465 makes it clear that what you're referring to is exactly what is being deprecated.
- jimrandomh 1y ago
  No it doesn't make it clear, because it's written by a third party reading the same internally-inconsistent page I am; any information added beyond the Google documentation page is conjecture.
  - znort_ 1y ago
    "Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts through POP." seems quite clear.
    - mschuster91 1y ago
      Good god Google can't be bothered to not wreck shit that doesn't cost them much, eh? Doesn't surprise me too much though, Gmail hasn't seen much maintenance and polish over the last few years.
      - VladVladikoff 1y ago
        Personally I’m happy about it. It’s the kick in the butt I needed to get my last remaining crap off Google and shut down my accounts for good.
    - suzzer99 1y ago
      What does "from a third-party account" mean? I have a test suite that accesses a gmail account through POP. It's a regular gmail account. Will that be affected? Edit: Okay I think not. But man is this confusing over whether it's Gmail that's doing the fetching over POP (a feature I had no idea existed) or somehting they're calling a third-party account fetching Gmail emails over POP.
sixhobbits 1y ago
I use exactly this on my personal (free) and work (paid workspace) accounts. I got an official notification from Google that one member in my workspace (me) has used the feature in the last 30 days and will be affected. I didn't (yet) get a notification on my personal account. I also rely pretty heavily on this feature for a few very low traffic domains that I need but only have super set up on super clunky web mail, so I guess I'm in the market for a new mail client :(
- pmontra 1y ago
  Maybe you can automatically forward mails from that domain to Gmail and find a way to label them. At worst you can write a mail client to do that by logging in, listing mails, mailing them to you and keeping track of what it already sent (sqlite?) They are very well known protocols with plenty of implementations, so probably a LLM can write the code with not much guidance.
  - HumanOstrich 1y ago
    Good luck getting consistent delivery to Gmail. Even Cloudflare's email forwarding keeps getting blocked / marked as spam.
    - vdqtp3 1y ago
      Which is hilarious considering they can't seem to stop obvious spam from hitting my inbox
    - NetMageSCW 1y ago
      I essentially have only forwarded email in my gmail from my personal domain, and it has never been a problem for me.
- ahofmann 1y ago
  I switched from Google workspace to zoho.com Zoho is dirt cheap and has great tools to import all my mail, contacts and calendar data.
Navarr 1y ago
I imagine the "POP only works with a single device" is in reference to the Gmail App's support for POP POP access of a different account on the web would be the "Check mail from other accounts"

iLoveOncall 1y ago

The top comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45440465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45440465 makes it clear that what you're referring to is exactly what is being deprecated.

jimrandomh 1y ago
No it doesn't make it clear, because it's written by a third party reading the same internally-inconsistent page I am; any information added beyond the Google documentation page is conjecture.
- znort_ 1y ago
  "Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts through POP." seems quite clear.
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    Good god Google can't be bothered to not wreck shit that doesn't cost them much, eh? Doesn't surprise me too much though, Gmail hasn't seen much maintenance and polish over the last few years.
    - VladVladikoff 1y ago
      Personally I’m happy about it. It’s the kick in the butt I needed to get my last remaining crap off Google and shut down my accounts for good.
  - suzzer99 1y ago
    What does "from a third-party account" mean? I have a test suite that accesses a gmail account through POP. It's a regular gmail account. Will that be affected? Edit: Okay I think not. But man is this confusing over whether it's Gmail that's doing the fetching over POP (a feature I had no idea existed) or somehting they're calling a third-party account fetching Gmail emails over POP.

sixhobbits 1y ago

I use exactly this on my personal (free) and work (paid workspace) accounts. I got an official notification from Google that one member in my workspace (me) has used the feature in the last 30 days and will be affected. I didn't (yet) get a notification on my personal account. I also rely pretty heavily on this feature for a few very low traffic domains that I need but only have super set up on super clunky web mail, so I guess I'm in the market for a new mail client :(

pmontra 1y ago
Maybe you can automatically forward mails from that domain to Gmail and find a way to label them. At worst you can write a mail client to do that by logging in, listing mails, mailing them to you and keeping track of what it already sent (sqlite?) They are very well known protocols with plenty of implementations, so probably a LLM can write the code with not much guidance.
- HumanOstrich 1y ago
  Good luck getting consistent delivery to Gmail. Even Cloudflare's email forwarding keeps getting blocked / marked as spam.
  - vdqtp3 1y ago
    Which is hilarious considering they can't seem to stop obvious spam from hitting my inbox
  - NetMageSCW 1y ago
    I essentially have only forwarded email in my gmail from my personal domain, and it has never been a problem for me.
ahofmann 1y ago
I switched from Google workspace to zoho.com Zoho is dirt cheap and has great tools to import all my mail, contacts and calendar data.

Navarr 1y ago

I imagine the "POP only works with a single device" is in reference to the Gmail App's support for POP POP access of a different account on the web would be the "Check mail from other accounts"