A good reason not to trust cloud services, Yahoo deleting archived email message

[techie]

It seems that everyone and everything is trying to push cloud services. At any point your cloud backup could disappear. A good example is Yahoo mail. The client is basically a cloud service. Yahoo can't explain why archived messages are disappearing, and really doesn't seem to care. What makes it even worse, it wiped my pop3 backup, on the computer. This is example of cloud, why even use it, if your information isn't safe. People that adapt to cloud will see many things disappear, it will happen. You better have that old fashioned backup ready, a 1TB drive in my hands is safer than a cloud backup any-day of the week, and overall relatively cheap.

[Digerati]

Actually, you simply illustrate why having only one backup destination is a bad idea.

[techie]

I have other backups, it just that many people have lost archived emails on Yahoo and other mail servers, which is nothing more than a mail client and a cloud service. That's why I don't trust cloud services, and in foreseeable future will not. As the old saying goes, your only as good as your last backup.

[Digerati]

it just that many people have lost archived emails on Yahoo and other mail servers, which is nothing more than a mail client and a cloud service.

"The cloud" is just a buzzword, marketing term, or metaphor for the Internet. Only the term is nothing new. And neither is Yahoo and other web based email services losing emails new.

That's why you can easily find how-to articles going back 5 years or longer on how to copy Yahoo (and Gmail and Hotmail) emails to your local drive. There are even free and commercial programs available for it. It is also why many people (like me) use POP to pull down their emails from these web based email services and don't keep copies out there.

I don't trust "the cloud" either, but no so much because I am afraid they will lose my backups. I am more afraid badguys will hack into it and gain access to my personal and my business files and information - that is, I don't trust that "cloud services" will keep my data secure.

[winchester73]

Good timing for this discussion, EarthLink has now gone live with their IMAP service after many years of offering only POP3. I'm trying to decide whether to switch over ...

[techie]

I don't trust "the cloud" either, but no so much because I am afraid they will lose my backups. I am more afraid badguys will hack into it and gain access to my personal and my business files and information - that is, I don't trust that "cloud services" will keep my data secure.

I don't use this email account for  any thing important or secure. I kind of consider it a junkmail account somewhat. I use a private secured email for really important things.

Exactly as you stated, trust, business, privacy, hack protection, what goes on the net stays on the net.

IMAP service is OK, but I still prefer a pop3 account. Most IMAP accounts will allow a pop3 connection.

[Aaron Hulett]

POP3 vs. IMAP *protocols* is really a question of whether you want to manage your mailbox from one device or more than one device. With traditional POP3 setups, you pull the email from the server and store it locally - messages are deleted from the email server after you retrieve them. IMAP on the other hand offers your device a view of what's stored on the email server. You interact with messages on the server, where they stay until deleted. And that is the primary difference: with POP3 you generally pull the email down for storage, whereas with IMAP the email stays on the server.

IMAP is helpful if you check your email from multiple devices such as from your PC, laptop, tablet and/or phone. If you read/take action on/delete an email from your phone, your PC will update to reflect this as well. With POP3 that gets very complicated; your phone would have to be set to not delete the email from the server after it fetches it so that your PC will get it. With IMAP you'd hit the same scenario that techie mentioned: if the email you wanted to keep was somehow lost, it'd be gone. But in theory, if you notice one device that an email is gone, you could hop on another device and rescue it as long as it hasn't synced with the email server (in other words, it didn't get the instruction to remove the email from local storage).

Which is why I'm confused about how Yahoo! could reach into a POP3 backup. If it's true POP3 then after you pull the email down it should have been removed from the email server, but assuming it was set to only pull emails and not also delete on the email server side post-fetching it should only be pulling new email information and not instructions to trash emails in the local store. POP3 could care less about what's stored locally; it's not syncing, it's just pulling.

Also, what email account is secure? Do you mean that you send/receive emails using encryption such as PGP?

[JDBush61]

Aaron, thanks for that explanation. I've also currently run into an e-mail mess with my mail settings (basically due to me being an idiot). I use Microsoft Office Outlook for my mail account at work (Sony laptop, running Windows 7 64), and I also have Office for Mac installed on my Macbook Pro here at home. I also just purchased a new iPhone 6, in which I need the ability to check my work-account mail.

The problem that I'm encountering is that when a new e-mail is sent to my work address, it always gets successfully delivered to my new iPhone, yet does not get delivered to my Sony at work or my Mac at home. Not sure what I've done wrong with the settings. At work, the university's mail is run through Gmail(?). I have not changed any settings on the work computer, and this mess began when I set up my work-account mail on my new iPhone.

On my new iPhone, I set up the work account as follows:

Incoming mail server: pop.gmail.com
Outgoing mail server: smtp.gmail.com
Delete from server: "Never"
Fetch new data: "Fetch" (as opposed to push)

I've used Outlook for years as my mail program on the Sony at work. I would also like to use Outlook (Office for Mac) on my Macbook here at home. And finally, I need my work e-mails to be delivered to all three places, and never be deleted. In addition, when I respond to a message, I want all three devices to have a record of that response.

So in sum, how do I set up all three devices so that my work mail (both incoming mail and outgoing mail) can be read on all three devices, and stays on all three?

Any and all advice greatly appreciated!

John