Leaving mail on server in Eudora using POP

When someone sends you an email message, it gets stored in a mail box on a server (most often, CalMail for campus users). Your email client uses one of two methods ("protocols" in computer jargon) to retrieve messages from the server. The traditional protocol used by networked computers for incoming e-mail is POP (Post Office Protocol), and that is what is described in this article. (The other protocol is IMAP; see Using IMAP in Eudora.)

When you check your mail using POP, the default behavior has long been that the messages are deleted on the mail server just as soon as they have downloaded to your computer. This, in other words, means that the messages are moved, not copied, to your computer. There are circumstances in which you may want messages to stay on the server after they have been download to your computer. In particular, keeping the messages on the server can allow you to check your email from multiple computers, and have copies of all of your messages at both locations. Also, leaving your messages on the server for a period of time can be helpful if your computer has a hardware failure or is stolen and you are forced to check your mail from a different machine. That will insure that you will have access to at least some of your recent email.

For example, if you would like copies of your mail to be received at both your work computer and at home, you can enable leave on server for a given number of days. Note that POP is a for receiving mail mail only (not sending), so if you wish to have copies of your outgoing mail on multiple machines, you should send yourself a copy of all messages by including your name in carbon copy (cc:) or blind carbon copy (bcc:) field. (You can create stationery in Eudora that already has your name in the cc: or bcc: field; for information, you can seach for stationery in Eudora help.)

With checking mail on both computers every day, a setting of one day is theoretically sufficient. Taking weekends into consideration, three days are needed. You would need a longer period if, for instance, you were to go on vacation for a week. Keep in mind that this setting is not server-based and does not reflect any action taken by the server for when messages are to deleted. They are exclusively applied whenever your client software checks mail.

The number of days can be set much higher than three. Choosing instead 30 days may, however, result in storing so much mail on the server that the server says "No more!" as a storage place quota for user accounts may be in place. If this occurs, you can change the setting, for instance, to 15 days and check mail to delete server copies of your mail outside the 15 day window.

To delete server copies of individual messages, you can click on the trash can appearing at the upper right (Mac) or left (Windows) of the window when viewing a message.