Webmail plugins for Mail.app: The current state of play
Apple Mail users with webmail-based email accounts have a number of options for getting their emails into Mail.app. I had occasion to look at them again today, although mistakenly.
Frequent changes in log in procedures due to the current rapid interface development in some services breaks them from time to time.
As far as I can tell, this is the current state of play.
The easiest to use, Mail Forward, is working fine. It has just been updated (3.2.2) to accommodate Windows Live Mail beta service changes and tell you more exactly why it can’t work with Yahoo! Mail Beta accounts. It works as a a “webmail translator” that forwards your AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, and Yahoo webmail transparently into Mail.app. (I know that there are more directly ways to get your Gmail and AOL email, but this app offers to do it too).
It retrieved emails from my Yahoo! (set not to use the beta) and Hotmail test accounts today without any problems. It works, it’s easy to set up but it’s shareware (19.95 USD)
MacFreePOPs is a GUI front-end for the open source FreePOPs project. It free, works with a wider variety of services and is harder to set up.
Even with the latest version (1.6) and the latest modules for Yahoo! and Hotmail, I couldn’t get it to work for me today. A quick glance at the support forum 
, reveals that lots of Hotmail and Yahoo! users are having problems at the moment. The developer is working on fixes for both.
HTTPMail is a specific plugin for older Hotmail and MSN accounts. Newer accounts need to be upgraded to Hotmail Plus in order for the plugin to work. I can’t test this. It’s freeware and comes in Jaguar, Panther, Tiger and Universal Binary flavours.
Have I missed any?
Similar Posts:
- Mail Forward 3.1.1.b1: Reading your webmail in Mail.app
- The Death of Hotmail for Mail.app users and a new solution
- Mail Forward 3.1
- MacFreePOPs 2.3: Webmail plugin gets leopardised
- HTTPMail updated for 10.5.3
Tags: Apple Mail, Apple Mail Tips, hotmail, mail.app, MSN, plugins, webmail, Yahoo
December 1st, 2006 at 12:10 am
Concerns : Webmail plugins for Mail.app: The current state of play
I tried Mailtofetch. It works but it doesn’t delete the messages. Reading and setting the flag “read” is only possible, I think.
December 8th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
i cant seem to get any one of the above to work …
just cant collect my hotmail with mail.app …
sad …
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:46 am
I’ve tried httpmail and macfreepops.. both do not work. I have a macbook intel. At this rate I will have to stick with entourage which was very very easy to set up:-(
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:57 am
I’ve struggled for a day trying to get my wife’s Hotmail account to download to the Mail app. I first tried FreePops and then MacFreePops and neither worked . . . MacFreePops told me the password was invalid, which I checked by logging in and out of Hotmail via the browser. Then after reading your site I found ‘httpmail’ and all I can say is brilliant! Downloaded and installed in minutes and Hotmail mail is now arriving in her Hotmail folder.
Thanks, you site is a mine of useful information.
June 17th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Hi all,
Just to report that Apple Mail 2.1.1 on an Intel MacBook running OS 10.4.9 does work OK with Hotmail Plus (£14.99/year subscription in the UK) and Daniel’s HTTPMail Plug-in 1.46 available from Apple at:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/email_chat/danielshttpmailplugin.html
Hope this helps others like me who were looking for an answer to Hotmail’s lockout of mail clients!
Strangely, my Dad’s Apple Mail is still working with his Hotmail account, on an eMac running 10.4.X but non-Intel. It was set up in April 2007 and is working fine without a subscription. I used a different mail to hotmail app but I can’t remember what it was! He’s in Australia so I can’t check easily.
Cheers,
Matthew.