change read to unread in IMAP GMail

[lian]

Hello, I check my incoming mails in GMail account in PopPeeper. At the end of the day, I open EMClient and check them a second time. But as I use IMAP, the new mail in EMClient are marked as read and, so, not easy to see at first glance. I wonder if I can prevent viewed messages in PopPeeper to be not marked as read.
Thanks.

[mjs]

Your request is defeating the purpose of IMAP which is to track what's been read versus what's not been read over multiple sources. That is, if a message has been previously "read" using IMAP, then you would want to know this, which is the purpose of IMAP in order to maintain continuity over multiple email service software (i.e. POP Peeper and the EClient, in this case).

That said, there's one thing you can do:
At the end of the day, prior to opening your EClient you can select the "read" messages you want to change to "unread" in POP Peeper and then right-click on any one of the selected messages and uncheck the option "Marked as Read" (near the top of the context-menu). This will change all of the messages you selected in POP Peeper back to "unread" (and as a result these same messages in your EClient will then be classified as "unread" as well).

Note: You can select multiple messages in the POP Peeper in-box in two ways:
1) using the "Shift" key will mark all successive messages in either direction from the first to the last message selected.
2) using the "CTRL" key you can select as many multiple messages individually as you wish.

As you can see, there are other right-click options as well as far as marking your messages in various different ways (but you have to take care as far as what your intentions are in regards to what your changing). If you are not sure about any of the other options, please feel free to ask about them before using them.

But keep in mind once again, with all of this said, your defeating the entire purpose of the tracking of messages (using IMAP) that have previously been read (via POP Peeper in this example.) The purpose of IMAP is to maintain continuity as far as what's been done over time with messages over multiple Email Services.

Again, specific to this discussion - looking back over the past history of the POP Peeper in-box messages - you're not going to know which of the messages you've previously "read" by setting the messages to "unread" (unless you're going to be reading all of the same messages over again in your EClient). In my opinion (if you stop to think about it) you're ultimately creating a catch-22 situation to address a rather minor issue in the first place.

As to your specific question, that is to quote "... prevent viewed messages in PopPeeper to be not marked as read" -- Keeping in mind there is an obvious purpose for differentiating between "read" and "unread" messages. I'm not so sure it makes much sense to actually want to "prevent" the messages you "view" in POP Peeper to ultimately never be marked as "read" (which is what you're asking) if you are using Peeper to "read messages" each day (which is presumably the case since your asking for "viewed" messages in POP Peeper to not be marked "read"). So with this in mind, why would it make any sense for you to not know what messages have been read in POP Peeper over time?

[mjs]

Hello, I check my incoming mails in GMail account in PopPeeper. At the end of the day, I open EMClient and check them a second time. But as I use IMAP, the new mail in EMClient are marked as read and, so, not easy to see at first glance. I wonder if I can prevent viewed messages in PopPeeper to be not marked as read.
Thanks.

To followup on your post in regards to your using IMAP you say "...the new mail in EMClient are marked as read..." (which you say is "not easy to see...").

Point is - only the messages that have been previously "read" (in this case by POP Peeper) will be marked as "read". Which what users would typically want - so that one knows what messages may still be pending to read perhaps (across multiple devices). This is the convenience and purpose of using IMAP; which is to track "read" and "unread" etc., messages across multiple devices by way of utilizing the IMAP protocol. And keep in mind, using IMAP is for the purpose of maintaining consistent message status over various multiple devices and/or platforms.

What you're asking to do is to ultimately defeat the advantages and purpose of using IMAP in the first place (which is essentially to maintain the status of all corresponding messages across multiple devices/platforms in regards to what a user has done with each of the specific corresponding messages retrieved by various applications).

[lian]

The purpose is to remember to answer to messages through EMClient. Life is hard, I am often very tired and it’s much more convenient to check unread messages in the mail client at the end of day.

I understand perfectly the way IMAP works and I don’t want to break it. I am just searching for a solution for my needs.

[mjs]

OK, then - if your goal is to address the entirety of your messages via your EClient (as "new" messages at the end of the day) and your presumably using POP Peeper as sort of a monitor to observe incoming messages throughout the day up until when you will presumably be addressing the current days incoming messages via your EClient (at days end). Then it would appear the solution I posted previously should work for you presumably. That is, to make sure you change all of the current days "read" messages in POP Peeper back to "unread" (as described in my previous post) prior to using your EClient (at the end of the day) to once again read through the days messages.

Does that work for you?

... and I certainly do agree and am sympathetic to our point that life can very often be hard...

[mjs]

If what your interested in is where you say

.... I wonder if I can prevent viewed messages in PopPeeper to be not marked as read.

And as such would prefer to not have to go through the procedure of changing the days "read" messages back to "unread" at the end of the day to then use your EClient to read the days messages (as "unread" which is the status you want to end up with prior to using your EClient for the day).

Then perhaps Jeff will know some alternative method to get what you want; as I'm not sure how to "prevent viewed messages in POP Peeper" from getting "marked as read" via the normal process of reading messages (hence my solution to change the "read status" of messages back to "unread" for the days previously "read" messages).

[lian]

Thanks for your answers. Well, the best solution would be a rule to change to unread new messages in EMClient. Thunderbird manages this properly but EMClient does not.

[mjs]

You're welcome, sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Jeff will likely be taking a look at this topic tomorrow sometime and possibly have more to add to the discussion at that time (perhaps in regards to incorporating an applicable "rule" in POP Peeper).