Need a good email client for Windows 10
June 30, 2018 6:20 AM Subscribe
Windows Live Email doesn't work reliably. Thunderbird won't stop syncing mails from a billion years ago. Mailspring has caused me to lose valuable work. I have a couple of email accounts to check that break whenever I try to redirect them to my Gmail. Help me with a Windows 10 mail client that ACTUALLY WORKS!
Windows 10 has its own built-in client just called "Mail" since Live Mail is no longer being updated. No idea if it's as fully featured as you want, but give it a look.
posted by sageleaf at 7:45 AM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sageleaf at 7:45 AM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've used Postbox and really liked it. See https://www.postbox-inc.com/
It costs $40 as far as I remember but worked really well for me. It does have a free trial available.
posted by chr at 8:19 AM on June 30, 2018
It costs $40 as far as I remember but worked really well for me. It does have a free trial available.
posted by chr at 8:19 AM on June 30, 2018
You don't mention Outlook which leads me to believe that you've dismissed it from the discussion for some reason, but, in my experience, Outlook is the standard for business and thoroughly debugged. At least, on Windows, it works for me. On Android, not so much.
As I have it on my Win 10 computer, it reports each message separately and does not link them into threads. Not sure if that's an option. I have the MS Office 2010 version.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:57 AM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
As I have it on my Win 10 computer, it reports each message separately and does not link them into threads. Not sure if that's an option. I have the MS Office 2010 version.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:57 AM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
The best I've found is eM Client.
Bonus, it will also do Calendaring and Contacts.
posted by tomierna at 10:05 AM on June 30, 2018
Bonus, it will also do Calendaring and Contacts.
posted by tomierna at 10:05 AM on June 30, 2018
Response by poster: I wouldn’t mind Thunderbird if there was a way I could tell it to NOT try and download emails going all the way back to 2002 (or something). Last time I tried to set up Thunderbird it just got stuck trying to sync decades worth of email and I couldn’t even begin to use it.
I have 4 email accounts to work with; a Google Apps one, a Gmail one, and 2 non-Google ones hosted by two different companies I work at remotely (so I have no control over their setup). I know with one of the non-Google ones it doesn’t work so well when you try to redirect to some other email (emails get delayed) - that’s an issue on the other side that again I have no control over.
I think I may have tried Outlook? I don’t recall. I’ll have to check again to see if I even have Outlook on my computer.
sageleaf: the inbuilt Windows 10 client is what I mean.
posted by divabat at 2:50 PM on June 30, 2018
I have 4 email accounts to work with; a Google Apps one, a Gmail one, and 2 non-Google ones hosted by two different companies I work at remotely (so I have no control over their setup). I know with one of the non-Google ones it doesn’t work so well when you try to redirect to some other email (emails get delayed) - that’s an issue on the other side that again I have no control over.
I think I may have tried Outlook? I don’t recall. I’ll have to check again to see if I even have Outlook on my computer.
sageleaf: the inbuilt Windows 10 client is what I mean.
posted by divabat at 2:50 PM on June 30, 2018
Are you using POP or IMAP to fetch the mail?
The first paragraph reads like you're using POP to access Gmail and have it configured to download everything instead of only the new stuff since your last access.
posted by Bangaioh at 4:29 PM on June 30, 2018
The first paragraph reads like you're using POP to access Gmail and have it configured to download everything instead of only the new stuff since your last access.
posted by Bangaioh at 4:29 PM on June 30, 2018
Response by poster: IMAP, since I use other devices too.
posted by divabat at 4:36 PM on June 30, 2018
posted by divabat at 4:36 PM on June 30, 2018
Have you investigated Thunderbird's preferences for controlling IMAP sync? They're quite flexible.
posted by flabdablet at 9:24 PM on June 30, 2018
posted by flabdablet at 9:24 PM on June 30, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
Would you be happy with Thunderbird if we could work out a way to stop the syncing misbehaviour you're currently seeing? If so, what mail access protocol is Thunderbird configured to use with the mail server it currently has this sync issue with? And when it "won't stop" syncing these old mails, are you ending up with duplicate copies, or does it just keep reading and re-reading the same mails from the server, or what?
What process are you using to redirect the email accounts that break to Gmail?
My own mail arrangements have got much saner since I gave up on trying to do email for free and just bought a Fastmail account. Fastmail's webmail client is the best I've used, its IMAP-based one-off importer for third party mail archives is smooth and capable, and its IMAP server Just Works with desktop clients without requiring any of the fiddling about I used to have to do to get Gmail to work that way.
posted by flabdablet at 6:55 AM on June 30, 2018 [2 favorites]