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I have always preferred POP over IMAP and am increasingly finding that the various mail services I use don't seem to offer it. I just don't need to save my sent mail remotely and prefer to delete mail on the server after a few weeks. I don't run any email servers myself so don't really know what goes on internally, only know as much as either using an all-in-one mail server or having one place with your domain and another with the email hosting.

The thing is with not seeming to offer it, I am starting to suspect that they discourage it even though it may be technically present. For example they deliberately do not mention it in their documentation although it is still there if you were to try access it.

Also, Thunderbird or other client programs would not automatically find a POP3 connection you would have to know how to enter the details manually.

So I am wondering if there are undocumented POP connections sitting around in the background of various email servers.

Can someone who knows about email servers kindly enlighten with the truth of the situation - do all email servers have POP / POP3 , do some not have it at all, do the people running these servers perhaps switch it off deliberately, should I be trying to probe or connect to a POP service which is not in the documentation and if so would you have any tips about doing so?

cardamom
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  • to be easy, a mail is just a text file and at this point. the server owner enable just a service that enables you to read the mail. so nope it does not require pop/PoP3 to read an Email remotely via an email client. else if you would have access to the physical machine you would be able to read it directly via the file – djdomi Jul 30 '23 at 08:29
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    This question is likely to be answered with opinions rather than facts and citations. It should be updated so it will lead to fact-based answers. – Romeo Ninov Jul 30 '23 at 08:58

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For most consumers POP3 neither meets their requirements nor their expectations.

Most people consume their email not only from their single PC but also from smart phones, tablets and webmail.

And they expect to see the same INBOX (and message history and folders) on all those devices.

In the past most of not all pop3 clients defaulted to automatically delete messages from the server after successful download. (I don’t know if that is still the case for all but I assume that is still the case for many POP3 clients.)

So if you had checked your mail on your PC any new messages would be downloaded there and those messages won’t be visible nor available in webmail or on your smartphone.

To protect users from accidentally configuring a single device to use POP3 and subsequently having to field complaints that their inbox is now empty on all their other devices, a provider has very valid reasons to not enable POP3 at all.

(And yes POP3 clients usually have a hidden / advanced option to NOT delete messages after successful download but people only re-discover that option after all messages have been deleted from the server.

And IIRC POP3 only allows messages to be downloaded and/or deleted from a mailserver, but there is no upload. A user can’t copy messages back from their email client to the server. )

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With IMAP and MAPI the expectations and defaults are to store the messages serverside and you get a complete mailbox regardless of which method you use check your email.

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So IMHO as a provider you don’t encourage users to use POP3 because it does not meet their expectations and it makes quite a lot of sense to disable the POP3 service even when your software supports it. It is a legacy protocol.

Even though from the perspective of the provider pop3 is ideal because when the majority of your users regularly check their e-mail, download any new messages and delete everything from the server, you only need a fraction of the storage compared to users storing all mail on the server.

HBruijn
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    I have since had an exchange with the provider and there is indeed a "secret" POP connection. It's on a non-standard port so a `telnet` query would not even have easily detected it and it is nowhere at all in their documentation. So you are right, it's there but it's very hidden but if you ask directly they tell you about it. – cardamom Aug 01 '23 at 07:29
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No, not all mail server software supports POP3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mail_servers

Of course, it's also at the provider's discretion whether POP3 is available to end users.

Also, Thunderbird or other client programs would not automatically find a POP3 connection you would have to know how to enter the details manually.

What a provider offers to clients via a domain's autoconfig XML is also at their discretion.

Note that speculation and ranting is off topic here. If you're not happy with a provider then talk to them or go elsewhere.

Zac67
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(this is mostly comment - but space is limited)

The term "email server" is very vague and your interpretation of it is probably different from how it is used elsewhere.

Its not clear what you are asking. Are you looking for software you can use to provision an email service yourself? Or an existing service you can use (this would be off-topic here)?

I don't run any email servers myself

Then I suggest you continue doing so until you have a learnt a LOT more about email and hence your question is off-topic.

symcbean
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