Tag Archive for: email

When I decided to leave Google Apps for Rackspace Email for a couple of my domains, I switched from a webmail user to an IMAP user. I set up the new email accounts in Outlook and within hours decided to remove them. Because Outlook pretty much sucks I decided to use Thunderbird as my IMAP client at work. There was one thing that wasn’t working correctly, one of the things I liked most about Thunderbird, unified folders.

I love that you can have a unified inbox but for some reason my copy of Thunderbird was only showing me the contents of one inbox. After a quick Google search I was able to find the solution. If you are experiencing the same issue, simply follow these instructions.

1. Launch Thunderbird and right click on your unified inbox folder and click properties.

2. Click on Choose for which folders Thunderbird should search for the unified inbox.

3. Select which IMAP folders should be included in the unified folder. In this case, I’m going to choose all Inbox folders.

4. Click OK to save the choices, then OK to exit out of the folder properties. Your unified inbox should now be working (you may need to restart Thunderbird to see the changes).

Of course, this can be done with any folder that you want to make unified (unified sent folders or draft folders, for example), you would just need to select the IMAP folders you want to include the same way as we did the Inboxes.

I love Gmail. I think it is the best webmail interface out of any of the major providers. This is why, along with great spam protection, I decided to set Google Apps for domains up on some of my domains. After several years using Google Apps with some of my domains, I think it’s time to call it quits.

Google Apps has grown by leaps and bounds and they really consider themselves an alternative for Microsoft’s offerings. I think they may be growing faster than they can handle though. I’ve been having several issues on multiple Apps accounts and because it’s Google, there is no help to be found. Sure you can search their help center but that just gives you a bunch of people complaining about the same issues. You have no way of knowing if and when Google is going to fix an issue. Some of the major issues that have literally made some accounts unusable are:

  • Permanent redirects when logging in. On one account I put in user credentials and the browser redirects over and over until the browser realizes it will never end and stops trying. This issue goes back a couple months with no one finding a solution that works. This makes logging into the control panel or the mailbox completely impossible. The only way to get email on this account is via IMAP.
  • Unable to edit groups. On a domain where I am actually able to log in I can’t edit groups. I click on the group name and I’m redirected to a Google 404 page. Again, I found people having this issue dating back to the beginning of summer. No fix.
  • Unable to delete groups. Another group issue comes when I go to delete a group. I select the group and click delete. The page refreshes and it tells me group is deleted. But it isn’t. It is still listed in my account.

So, I think with these errors it is time to leave Google. I need to go someplace where things work reliably and when/if they don’t I can actually contact a support person for an answer and a fix. You may be asking why I don’t use the email service that comes with my hosting. Well, it’s shared hosting and anyone on a shared hosting account knows that they have issues with major ISPs blocking shared hosting IPs, plus spam checking is subpar, so I need to find an alternative provider.

Today I started a 14 day trial of Rackspace Email on one of my domains. Their webmail looks good, but I probably won’t use it that much. Since Google enabled IMAP all my domain email has been accessed via IMAP most of the time so it’s likely that will be the same at Rackspace. Some things they also have which makes the move easier are excellent spam and virus protection as well as superior support. We shall see how it works out.

Edit: Despite being told in the comments that I needed to upgrade to premium for these issues to be looked at, they are now miraculously fixed. One of the many Google employees that have visited the site today must have had a hand in it because I highly doubt that these issues just happened to fix themselves today. To the Google employee that helped me out, a sincere thank you.

Edit #2: Setting up a Google Apps account for a friend and I decided to download and install Opera. It had never been used to log into any Google accounts or services. It had completely empty cache and cookies. I set up the account then tried to log in and got the permanent redirect. This was on a brand new instance of Google apps. Something is wrong with their system and no one seems to know how to fix it and Google doesn’t care.

I have way too many email accounts. I have accounts set up on this domain (using Google apps). I have accounts set up for my real name domain as well. Also I have [email protected]. And then there’s all the accounts set up for all the other websites I run, old accounts I never use for email but still use for other things (such as Yahoo and a second Yahoo address I had to create when Flickr’s login merged with Yahoo’s) and email addresses that were created for me when I signed up for a service (ATT Uverse). That’s 3 email addresses just at Yahoo alone.

The funny thing is, even with all these email accounts, I rarely send actual emails. I exchange emails with my friend Trix and my family, but that’s about it. It’s not that I dislike email. In fact, email is my preferred form of communication. I would much rather exchange emails than talk on the phone. I guess one of the reasons I never send personal emails is because everyone I know is on Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, or IM. There really is no need for me to email people anymore and when I do it’s for a quick question or comment, nothing at length. I actually enjoy sending emails. There’s something to be said about sitting down and composing a lengthy note to a friend or family member. Sadly, I rarely take the time to sit and do this. I think the first thing I need to do is consolidate some of these accounts. The Yahoo ones that I have I should part with. Yes, it’s like giving up part of my youth, but I think it’s time. After that I might just send out a lengthy email. But probably not.