

When using recent mode, 'popped' messages (downloaded in normal mode) will still be shown to mail clients. What happens to my messages in Gmail after they've been popped? This means that multiple POP clients can download the same messages, and they will all see all messages (as long as they check the mailbox at least every 30 days). In POP recent mode, Gmail will present all messages from All Mail (Spam and Trash are excluded) from the last 30 days. After Gmail provides messages to your mail client, your client begins downloading them. How does recent mode work?Ī POP client session starts with your mail client (Thunderbird, Outlook, Sparrow, etc.) asking your Gmail mailbox for a list of messages that haven't yet been downloaded. Eventually, your mail client will download all of your messages in Gmail, although this process may take a while, depending on the size of your Gmail mailbox. the connection dropped and no QUIT command was received), the messages downloaded during the session won't be marked as popped.Īfter your client downloads the messages, it asks Gmail for a list of messages again. Gmail will again provide a list of the next oldest 250 conversations that haven't been popped yet. This means that once a message is downloaded by the POP client, if the POP session ends normally (with the QUIT command), Gmail will mark the message as popped (and it will no longer appear when POP clients get the list of message) - even if the client didn't explicitly specify the DELE command after downloading the message. Gmail considers messages as downloaded once they've been downloaded using the RETR command (as explained in the protocol documentation). If however, your mail client crashes unexpectedly, the message will be re-downloaded. Regardless of which behavior you select, any downloaded message will be marked internally as 'popped' and will not be downloaded again.

That depends on which behavior you've selected in the When messages are accessed with POP setting in Gmail.

Because a conversation in Gmail can consist of more than one message, your mail client will probably download more than 250 individual messages. Why "about 250" messages? When your POP client asks Gmail for the list of messages, Gmail retrieves the oldest 250 conversations that haven't been popped yet.
