Keeping email locally

[Rebecca Landis]

I am new to Zimbra Desktop. My ISP offer ZCS as an alternate webmail client. I've been running Outlook for ages and finally had enough.

My problem is that Zimbra wants to purge desktop email if I don't move them into a local folder. It also seems to ignore sent mail even in its voracious moods.

I can temporarily control disappearing email by keeping Outlook as my default email client and setting the number of days to keep mail on the server to something longer than Zimbra would give me -- 2 or 3 days, tops.

My main email is configured as a Zimbra account, which appears to mean IMAP. I THINK I could configure this account as POP, but I'll have to kill the other one first. Zimbra won't let me have two accounts for a single email address.

Is there any way to make a Zimbra account play nice? Or do I have to start over with a new POP version?

[phoenix]

If you have set-up your Zimbra Desktop to use the 'Zimbra Account' configuration then it does not remove any email from the server unless you are connecting with another client that removes email. If you wish to use it as a POP3 account you can certainly do that but email will be removed from the server.

I'm not really sure what your title "Keeping email locally" actually means, what are you trying to do? Don't forget that ZD is an offline mail client and will synchronise itself with your server and keep an exact copy of what's on your server (in all the folders).

[Rebecca Landis]

Email is disappearing from my Zimbra Desktop inbox. It seems to be connected with email being deleted on the server.

My ISP insists that nothing could possibly happen in their application (ZCS) that would cause it. The trigger is NOT in the cloud.

That leaves two suspects: Outlook and Zimbra Desktop. Whichever one I have as the default email client does the dirty deed. I have tested this by altering the number of days setting in Outlook and watching what disappears when. If instead I set Zimbra Desktop as the default email client, email disappears on a faster schedule that I am not allowed to edit.

The exception is that mail I move into a "local" Zimbra folder is left alone, as is sent mail.

Phoenix, I hope that is clearer than my first explanation.

[phoenix]

Email does not 'disappear' from the server unless it gets deleted by an email client and ZD does not delete email of it's own volition, it only synchronises with the server. If you remove an email from the server with Outlook then connect with ZD it will synchronise with that and any deleted email will be removed from the local cache of Zimbra Desktop.

How are you connecting with Outlook, is it POP3?

[Rebecca Landis]

Outlook is set to POP. Zimbra accounts are configured as IMAP.

I do have a Blackberry, but it always acts in deference to other email clients. It is stupid for a smartphone, but it never tells the server to kill mail. It is IMAP also.

My ISP says nothing comes off the server unless a local program calls for it to happen. You say it cannot be a Zimbra acccount.

So I am between a rock and a hard place.

[Rebecca Landis]

Sorry I edited out the part that responds to your question.

I know Outlook CAN direct mail to come off the server. But I also know how to control that through settings. The real issue is that when I pull Outlook off the job by making Zimbra the default, then things really start to disappear.

That is why I believe Zimbra Desktop is doing it. Not quite a smoking gun, but it's hanging out in the room where the murders are being committed.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Landis

Outlook is set to POP. Zimbra accounts are configured as IMAP.

Why do you not have ZD set as a Zimbra account? I also don't understand why you have Outlook to connect as POP3 rather than IMAP, any particular reason?

Originally Posted by Rebecca Landis

My ISP says nothing comes off the server unless a local program calls for it to happen.

Your ISP is correct. Neither the Zimbra server nor Zimbra Desktop will remove mail from the server unless you tell it to do so. Other mail clients will also remove mail from the server. The only way email get's removed from the server is if you a) have a filter set (in the Zimbre Web UI) on your account that removes mail; b) the mail client you use to connect to your account removes the mail (by you deleting it); or c) your account has been hacked.

Originally Posted by Rebecca Landis

I know Outlook CAN direct mail to come off the server. But I also know how to control that through settings. The real issue is that when I pull Outlook off the job by making Zimbra the default, then things really start to disappear.

That is why I believe Zimbra Desktop is doing it. Not quite a smoking gun, but it's hanging out in the room where the murders are being committed.

What can I say other than repeat my comments above? I don't have access to the server log files and really can't do anything about this problem nor can I confirm that the mail is getting deleted (I do believe what you say) so I'm at a loss about what to do next.

First of all, is this Outlook or Outlook Express you're using to connect to your account? Go through a typical session where you believe that email is getting deleted. What client do you use to connect to the account? At this point do you remove (delete) any email from your account? What do you do next and which client do you use?

The only thing that springs to mind is that you're connecting to your account with Outlook as a POP3 client and it's not leaving those messages on the server, what you see in Outlook is all of the local cache of messages. When you next connect to your account with ZD you then see the messages 'disappear', does that sound about right? If that really is your scenario then I'd check your settings in Outlook and confirm that it really is set to leave the mail on the server.

[Rebecca Landis]

1. I DO have a ZD account now and those are actually IMAP. I am contemplating starting over as a POP account, because my ISP thinks this will fix everything. IMAP is like a mirror in this context. But I have to kill the ZD account before I do that. ZD cannot have two accounts pulling on the same email. There is some concern about having two POPs active, as in a new ZD POP and Outlook. I do NOT use Outlook Express. My ISP probably told me to do POP years ago. If I switched it I might lose my local cache?

2. I have checked Z Web UI filters and there are none. I think my ISP checked earlier. There is no hacking. I can create the results in controlled experiments: Outlook can be set to yank mail from server in x days. I check and it happens in x days plus 2-3 hrs. ("It" being mail disappears from ZD inbox and server.) Then I switch default email to ZD. Many more emails disappear immediately, from both ZD inbox and server, because ZD has a shorter number of days set somewhere. Just not where I can adjust it to my needs.

3. My goal is for ZD to allow a local cache I can keep indefinitely, like Outlook, w/o moving any messages until I feel like it. I get so much email that moving it every day is a chore. Perhaps I just have to automate that.

[Marylander]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Landis

1. I DO have a ZD account now and those are actually IMAP. I am contemplating starting over as a POP account, because my ISP thinks this will fix everything. IMAP is like a mirror in this context. But I have to kill the ZD account before I do that. ZD cannot have two accounts pulling on the same email. There is some concern about having two POPs active, as in a new ZD POP and Outlook. I do NOT use Outlook Express. My ISP probably told me to do POP years ago. If I switched it I might lose my local cache?

2. I have checked Z Web UI filters and there are none. I think my ISP checked earlier. There is no hacking. I can create the results in controlled experiments: Outlook can be set to yank mail from server in x days. I check and it happens in x days plus 2-3 hrs. ("It" being mail disappears from ZD inbox and server.) Then I switch default email to ZD. Many more emails disappear immediately, from both ZD inbox and server, because ZD has a shorter number of days set somewhere. Just not where I can adjust it to my needs.

3. My goal is for ZD to allow a local cache I can keep indefinitely, like Outlook, w/o moving any messages until I feel like it. I get so much email that moving it every day is a chore. Perhaps I just have to automate that.

Hi,
Did you manage/succeed in getting ZD to keep a permenant local copy?

Thanks

[Rebecca Landis]

Thanks for asking.

No, the only thing I have managed is a workaround. I set Outlook, which is still my default, to delete messages on the server in 10 days. I have about that long to move messages from the Zimbra inbox to a local file I call Keep it.

This is not ideal, but I'm surviving with it. My work slows down in the winter, so I might be able to make some changes when I am not fielding as many emails as I do now.

Another oddity I didn't note when I posted originally: Sent mail never expires like received mail does. I have to manually kill that on my server, or my allotment of space will fill up.