Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Web based email is handy but limited. Most do not allow direct access using a normal email program.
I use a web-based email service like Yahoo or Hotmail - is there a way to read that email in a 'regular' pop3 email program like outlook?
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The answer not surprisingly is: it depends. But first, a quick definition.
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POP3, which stands for "Post Office Protocol version 3", is the defacto standard for email retrieval by stand-alone email clients. When your email program, for example Outlook Express, downloads your email from your ISP, chances are it's using the POP3 protocol. Web based services skip this step because your email is never downloaded to a separate client. It's simply displayed via a web page you access.
Web based email has long been used as a way to check email while you're away from the computer. For example many ISPs offer a web interface to your email in addition to a POP3 interface. Even if your ISP does not offer such an interface, many of the independent web based email services such as Yahoo or Hotmail allow you to view your POP3 based email in their web interfaces.
But what if you have the reverse situation? You have all of your email in a Web-only service and would like to download it into a off-line mail client?
That's where the "it depends" comes in. And even then the news isn't really all that good.
With most services you are unfortunately out of luck. Most services, Yahoo included, do not have a separate interface to download email into an offline client.
In fact, Hotmail is the only web based service I'm aware of that supports a downloading client. And even then the only client it supports is Outlook Express. Periodically there are rumors that Hotmail will be dropping Outlook Express support but they have yet to pan out. And much like dropping support for Outlook Express completely, which Microsoft announced earlier this year and then reversed, this feature of Outlook Express is so popular that I'd expect a similar public backlash.
Note that Outlook (not Outlook Express - see here if that confuses you) claims support for Hotmail as well - however it simply amounts to viewing the Hotmail web page within Outlook and is not a true download. Microsoft has this article in the Knowledgebase that discusses how to set up this feature in Outlook.
Update: Since this article was published I've become aware of a couple of tools that can make Hotmail and Yahoo mail available via any pop3/smtp mail application. They require a little bit of configuration on your part and run as background processes on your machine, but they provide a layer that translates between the normal POP3 and SMTP protocols and the Hotmail or Yahoo web or proprietary interfaces. These said tools are Hotpop for Hotmail accounts and Yahoo Pops, an open source project for Yahoo mail. These are definitely not endorsed by Hotmail or Yahoo.
I've also become aware of the fact that while Outlook 2000 functions as described above, Outlook 2002/XP and Outlook 2003 do support Hotmail directly.
Article C1859 - November 8, 2003
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Gmail supports POP3 clients and gives full instructions about how to set up the account in Outlook. There are a variety of options, such as whether to leave a copy of the mail oon the server after retrieval by Outlook.
I definitely don't share your views on free email accounts, Leo. I have found Gmail to be great. True, the account gets a lot of spam, but they have a really excellent filter and put 99.99% of it in a special spam folder.
Posted by: Coly Moore at November 18, 2008 8:15 AMYou mentioned YahooPops and HotPops. However, there is another piece of software that covers a variety of email accounts: FreePOPS. It works well with Yahoo, Hotmail and Netzero. At least those are all that I've tried it on. It purports to handle AOL and Juno, as well as a variety of others.
Posted by: physics geek at May 12, 2009 5:04 PMI use Thunderbird to send/receive Hotmail messages. I have 2 questions:
a) Messages "RECEIVED" are kept on both Thundebird & Hotmail (cause I chose "Leave mesages on the server" option), but it is NOT the case for "SENT" messages. Any sugestion as to how to do the latter?
b) Do I still have to pay the annual ±$20 a year for "Windows Live Hotmail PLus"? - I only use the mail, and non of the other features...
Thanks for your advice.
b) I don't see why you'd need to. POP3 is available to all accounts. Not sure what else you're getting with your subscription.
20-Jun-2009
Posted by: Lou at June 20, 2009 5:49 AM
My query is that I cant use windows mail included in most/all windows programmes because of the way I connect to the internet.I have a laptop and I use a plug-in dongle (like a flash drive) which connects via a radio signal exactly the same way as a mobile phone. Because of this 02 who supplied me with the dongle cant give me the pop3 and smtp configurations which includes email address etc, and this is why I have to use hotmail.It seems I could only use w.mail if I connected to internet using a phone line like the old dial-up, or a router. Any help on this would be appreciated.
Posted by: Keith Thomas at March 6, 2010 6:24 AMLEO, an update of this VERY IMPORTANT article of yours is badly needed: it's 5 years old. I have never been able to find a satisfactory method to manage a Yahoo! Mail account using Office Outlook: I've tried FreePops, Ypops, you name it. Results have been mostly awkward, or outright disastrous: mail is never read, outgoing mails are never sent (or sending mail is plainly unsupported), the whole of Outlook hangs up, etc., or (about the most annoying bug) the same piece of e-mail gets downloaded dozens of times. Just imagine receiving a bunch of 33 e-mails on a given morning, with each one having a dozen replicas! I hope you feel there's a need to do some research and (hopefully) find fresh solutions to this old problem (please!). Thanks a lot!
01-Sep-2010
Posted by: Hannibal at August 31, 2010 6:39 AM