Page updated 22 February 2013
Checking for Mail
Having set up a mail account during installation of nPOPuk, you may check for new mail waiting on the server in a number of ways:
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By clicking on the Mailbox icon on the toolbar (Menu: CONNECT > CHECK ACCOUNT. Keyboard: CTRL+N). If there is more than one account installed then first select the Mailbox of the account to be checked from the Mailbox Pane. It is also possible to click the button one to the right to "Check all accounts" (Menu: CONNECT > CHECK ALL ACCOUNTS. Keyboard: CTRL+J).
- By double-clicking on the account to be checked in the Mailbox Pane.
By clicking on the System Tray icon and selecting either the "Check all accounts" or "Check" option from the menu. A grey envelope icon is displayed when the appropriate Global Option is set.
NOTE: When the "Check" option is selected a cascading menu will open. Only the first 10 accounts will be listed. Those with more than ten accounts will need to use the options available from the program window to access the additional accounts.-
If the appropriate Global Option is set, account checking can also occur automatically at predetermined intervals.
If not connected by LAN and not currently on-line, any of the above actions will also start the dial-up connection procedure, following the requirements set under the Connection tab of the Account Settings dialogue.
During communication with the server, the icon is overlaid with a "download" arrowhead. Messages indicating progress will also appear in the Status Line. These messages can be recorded in a server log file by editing an entry in the nPOPuk.ini file.
In the event of new mail being found when the server is checked the icon changes colour to the familiar nPOPuk yellow. Clicking on the icon will restore the Main Window with the first new mail selected.
By default, only the first 100 lines of a mail item are retrieved from the server. If the defaults have not been changed (Menu: FILE > GLOBAL OPTIONS > RECV) and the item is longer than 100 lines, it will be necessary to retrieve the entire body to read it all, or complete the download of any attachment. This is done by Marking Mail and Updating the Server.As mail items are retrieved, their headers are displayed in the Main Window. (The icons associated with each mail item are explained on the page describing the Main Window.) Any filters (Menu: MAILBOX > EDIT > FILTER) which are in use will also affect whether, and how, items are displayed in the mail list. Some may not appear at all. Others might be marked as read, for deletion or full download.
Optional visual and audible warnings on completion of the mail check can be configured, which will appear if the Main Window is open but not active or minimised.
If there is new mail in more than one Mailbox an indication of the number of Mailboxes with new mail appears on the title bar. An asterisk appears against each Mailbox with new mail in the Mailbox Pane.
How mail is saved, and whether to reveal the full headers are controlled through the Global Options dialogue (Menu: FILE > GLOBAL OPTIONS > RECV). Further options are also available to control the automation of checking events etc. (Menu: FILE > GLOBAL OPTIONS > CHECK).
Used with the System Tray icon nPOPuk is ideal to use as a "Mail Checker". It uses minimal system resources, so doesn't slow your computer down as many conventional heavyweight e-mail programs do. Refer to the Global Options page for the settings that can be selected to make the most of this feature.
Reading, replying and forwarding the mail are each covered on separate pages.
Potential Problems on Checking Mail
Constantly Reloading Mail
Some users, with accounts containing hundreds of messages, have reported that on checking the account nPOPuk always loads them from the beginning again and want to know how to get it to add new mail to the existing messages shown in nPOPuk.
This issue occurs when they are using another e-mail program or web service in conjunction with nPOPuk. If mail is deleted other than in nPOPuk, then what remains on the server does not tie in with nPOPuk's record of what is there. To stay small and fast nPOPuk only keeps a record of the number of messages in the InBox and the ID of the final message. The only way it has to synchronise its records is to reload the entire set of messages. The solution is to use nPOPuk to delete unwanted messages from the InBox.
Disappearing Mail
Some users complain that on checking for new e-mail nPOPuk throws away all the email already downloaded. If mail is not saved then nPOPuk will only show the new mail found on the server. The problem is caused because the default setting on the RECV tab of the Global Options dialogue has been changed to "Nothing saved". To retain the full list of all mail still on the server, on the Global Option dialogue select to save either the header or header and body.
Providing the mail on the server has not been deleted, it is possible to re-fetch the missing items. The left hand part of the status line reveals how many items you can see and how many are still on the server. To show all the messages on the server, before you next connect, open the Mailbox menu on the main window and select Initialise.... On the dialogue that opens, set "Mail from item number:" to the value "1".
Aborting Mail Checks and Updates
Once a Check Mail or Update Mail process is running, the option to "Stop" becomes active. The circle with a cross icon on the toolbar turns red. Clicking on this icon (Menu: CONNECT > STOP. Keyboard: CTRL+S) will abort any of the connection, check or update processes.
If the Notification Area icon is in use, then it is also possible to stop the checking of the server by right-clicking on the icon and selecting the Stop option.