Why IMAP for GMail? Zimbra Slow?

[johnb847]

I use GMail as an email archive (good idea? open to alternatives), so using IMAP causes messages that have been downloaded to Outlook (soon to be Zimbra), read and deleted from Outlook to be deleted from the GMail server. No more archive. (Correct me if I'm wrong anywhere along the line).

I've been using POP3 in Outlook. It allows the download of messages without disturbing the original on the GMail server. Why can't I do that with Zimbra? What is the benefit to using IMAP?

Also (this is before completely installed), Zimbra seems a little slow even compared to Outlook. I'm trying it as an alt to Outlook because Outlook can get so bloated and slow. Am I wasting my time?

Thanks.
John

[Krishopper]

IMAP is a protocol where emails are locally synced with the remote server. So when you set it up using IMAP, and delete something locally, it will also delete remotely (on Gmail).

Backing up to your first sentence - if you're using Gmail as an Archive, why are you downloading it into ZDesktop, rather than doing that with your original (non-archive) account? What is your goal, what are you trying to accomplish?

[johnb847]

What is my goal? To have a permanent archive of ALL email to that address.

Why download to local client inbox (Outlook or ZD)? To act upon the message: read, reply, and/or forward, and then delete leaving a clean inbox maintaining system speed and increasing productivity.

Why retain on GMail server? As a permanent archive with ~unlimited space somewhere other than my computer (for disaster recovery and space savings) that is readily and speedily searchable.

If this is misguided, I am open to alternative suggestions.

So you confirmed my reason for NOT using IMAP (deleting in client deletes from server). How do I use POP3 with ZD? Why NOT use POP3?

Also, is ZD faster or slower than Outlook?

Thank you for your reply.
John

[Krishopper]

I guess when I think of having an archive account (and I currently have one, at Gmail, too), I have all my email forwarded to there, but I don't use the account unless I need to find something and dig it up.. so it's not even set up in ZD for me. I have my primary account setup in ZD, and from there I act upon the messages.

If you just have a single mailbox, and you're using that same one for your archive, I would not recommend using IMAP; I'd use POP3 (set up a new account, but use "Other" for the type and choose POP3 rather than IMAP. If you choose Gmail, it will defalut to IMAP), and then that will save a copy of your email locally on your computer and won't push those changes back up to the Gmail servers.

I'm not sure if ZD is faster or slower than Outlook; I don't think those benchmarks have been run. Although, Outlook is a native Windows application. ZD is a Java application, so you will have a little bit of that Java overhead to deal with.

[johnb847]

"I have all my email forwarded to there, but I don't use the account unless I need to find something and dig it up."

I see the advantage to that (security of minimal touches) but I actively use the archive as a search database...almost daily. I will setup a separate GMail account as an untouched archive for redundancy. Thank you for that!

So, I CAN use POP3 in ZD. Excellent! The install automatically used IMAP. I will figure out how to manually install.

Thank you, Krishopper!

John

[phoenix]

The Search tips also apply to ZImbra Desktop.