Sending POP3 commands to Gmail returns old messages

command linegmailpop3telnet

I am trying to issue simple POP3 commands to Gmail like so:

openssl s_client -connect pop.gmail.com:995
+OK Gpop ready for requests from XX.XX.XX.XX
USER my-email@gmail.com
+OK send PASS
PASS mypassword
+OK Welcome.

Connection and authentication all works fine. However when I issue a STAT or LIST command I receive the following:

STAT
+OK 345 20351669

This states I have 345 messages in my Inbox. In actuality I have 180, only a few unread. This number couldn't be refering to ALL of my emails… I've had this account for 5 years and definitely have WAY more than 345. So, I started RETR'ing some messages. The newest one (#345) is from Jan 2007 and the oldest one (#1) is from late 2006. Over the course of writing this I've received a few new emails, but even after reconnecting and issuing new LIST commands the 345 number does not change.

I'm no e-mail/pop expert but I'm really stumped here… POP3 is enabled for "all messages" in gmail settings. I even tried doing this same thing with another Gmail account and I get the exact same results; a really low message count and really old messages.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

try

USER recent:my-email

instead of

USER my-email

Seems like the "recent:" prefix on the username re-fetches the most recent messages:

How to re-download recent Gmail messages

Related Solutions

C# – Sending email in .NET through Gmail

Be sure to use System.Net.Mail, not the deprecated System.Web.Mail. Doing SSL with System.Web.Mail is a gross mess of hacky extensions.

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Mail;

var fromAddress = new MailAddress("from@gmail.com", "From Name");
var toAddress = new MailAddress("to@example.com", "To Name");
const string fromPassword = "fromPassword";
const string subject = "Subject";
const string body = "Body";

var smtp = new SmtpClient
{
    Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
    Port = 587,
    EnableSsl = true,
    DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network,
    UseDefaultCredentials = false,
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential(fromAddress.Address, fromPassword)
};
using (var message = new MailMessage(fromAddress, toAddress)
{
    Subject = subject,
    Body = body
})
{
    smtp.Send(message);
}

Additionally go to the Google Account > Security page and look at the Signing in to Google > 2-Step Verification setting.

If it is enabled, then you have to generate a password allowing .NET to bypass the 2-Step Verification. To do this, click on Signing in to Google > App passwords, select app = Mail, and device = Windows Computer, and finally generate the password. Use the generated password in the fromPassword constant instead of your standard Gmail password.
If it is disabled, then you have to turn on Less secure app access, which is not recommended! So better enable the 2-Step verification.

C# – Sending email through Gmail SMTP server with C#

CVertex, make sure to review your code, and, if that doesn't reveal anything, post it. I was just enabling this on a test ASP.NET site I was working on, and it works.

Actually, at some point I had an issue on my code. I didn't spot it until I had a simpler version on a console program and saw it was working (no change on the Gmail side as you were worried about). The below code works just like the samples you referred to:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var client = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587)
            {
                Credentials = new NetworkCredential("myusername@gmail.com", "mypwd"),
                EnableSsl = true
            };
            client.Send("myusername@gmail.com", "myusername@gmail.com", "test", "testbody");
            Console.WriteLine("Sent");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

I also got it working using a combination of web.config, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w355a94k.aspx and code (because there is no matching EnableSsl in the configuration file :( ).

2021 Update

By default you will also need to enable access for "less secure apps" in your gmail settings page: google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps. This is necessary if you are getting the exception "`The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required. – thanks to @Ravendarksky

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