Problem deleting Hotmail messages

[ECourts]

Hi,

Short version
over the last week or so POP Peeper does not seem to be able to delete Hotmail messages accessed via POP3. I'm using PP 5.0.1 (but it was the same with 5.0.0).

Long version
PP accesses my Hotmail (know known as outlook.com) account every 5 minutes. I mark messages that I wish to delete, and on the next scan they appear to be removed from the PP list. However, on the following scan they return (as new messages). I checked my PP settings for the account and having consulted with Hotmail help realised I was using what may be an old POP3 server - pop3.live.com - I copied the account in PP and changed the incoming server to that recommended by Hotmail - outlook.office365.com - but the problem remains (the old Hotmail account is still there, but disabled from the polling). Hotmail is not reporting any errors from the server.

Might this be a POP Peeper problem, or has something changed in Hotmail/outlook.com and should I be looking at my Hotmail settings?

Thanks as always..

Edwin

[n8chavez]

I am not sure if this help you, but I am currently using Outlook as my email provider and I do not have this issue (with anything but spam). The server address I use is: "imap.outlook.com:993 (ssl)". With pop3 you're downloading a local copy of the message and working from that. With IMAP you're working off of the server, no local copy is used. Perhaps this might change now that you're using IMAP. Try the server I gave you above and see if that helps.

[ECourts]

Thank you for that. I was thinking of moving to the IMAP server to see if it made any difference. I've been using POP3 for many years and it's worked fine, so I wondered what might have changed. I'll wait a day or so to see if anyone else responds, then I'll change to IMAP to see if it works. I need to think if there are any downsides (none spring to mind!)

[n8chavez]

This is just my personal opinion, but pop3 is outdated now. IMAP is so much better.

[mjs]

I've just now tested the deletion of emails in outlook.com* accounts using both POP3 and IMAP - in either case I am not experiencing any issues deleting messages for outlook.com accounts.

For the record since the problem is using POP3 in this case, I am using the following settings:
For POP3: Incoming Server "pop-mail.outlook.com" using SSL/TLS on Port 995 (which are the settings generated by PP when changing to POP3 so would appear to the default settings in this case).

As to using IMAP instead of POP3 - "IMAP" is the preferred protocol to use for various reasons (you might nevertheless try the settings above just to see if this makes a difference regarding your issue deleting messages when using POP3).

Also for the record (although this would presumably not be an issue in this case since you are getting messages retrieved w/out any PP errors hence just an FYI comment) it is worth noting regarding the use of POP3 for Outlook.com for PP - it is required to enable POP access in Outlook.com by performing the following steps (in your Outlook.com account on-line):
1) Select Settings Settings > View all Outlook settings > Mail > Sync email.
2) Under POP and IMAP, select Yes under Let devices and apps use POP and Select Save.
Failure to do this will prevent PP from using POP3 for Outlook.com accounts (at least this is the case for me, otherwise my use of POP3 in PP produced "Invalid Username or Password" errors when I changed protocols to test POP3).

*Note: the above is applicable to both Outlook.com or Hotmail.com domains (tested "Delete" for both using POP3 successfully).

[Jeff]

Someone in email reported a similar issue (which was a revisit of an issue that they experience some 6 years ago also with Hotmail/POP3). Right now, my theory is that there's something wrong with your account and, more specifically, there may be a particular message causing the problem. I've looked at their logs, and PP isn't doing anything wrong: hotmail responds positively to deleting the message, but when PP attempts to close the connection, Hotmail returns with an error (and the error only occurs if a delete was attempted in the session).

If you were thinking of switching to IMAP, I'd say that might be a good idea (as others have already mentioned, IMAP is far superior to POP3 and email services are much more likely to catch/repair issues with the protocol which most people are using compared to one that is probably not being used by many people anymore). Let us know your results if you do switch.

[ECourts]

I was pretty sure that Hotmail changed something. I think the similar problem some years back related to issues with the Webmail module which I subsequently moved away from.
Moving to IMAP has solved the problem for me, but I'm always curious to know why something that worked previously no longer works
Thanks for all the responses...
Edwin