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I use my ISP email service. By default my ISP provides the email service with POP3 protocol and no SSL security to fetch the email. I need to access my email in my smartphone, tablet, laptop but POP3 doesn't synchronize the email so I end up checking several times the same emails.

Due to budget constraints I cannot pay the IMAP+Security service provided by the ISP.

I am wondering if Gmail can help me in solving the synchronization and security problems in the meantime. I researched in Google and I thought of this, please let me know if my idea is correct or you have a better option to help me with this problem:

  1. Create a gmail account
  2. Combine the gmail account with the ISP email account so Gmail can now fetch the email using POP3.
  3. In my tablet, smartphone and laptop I will have to access now the Gmail account and remove the ISP account I configured in the "Mail" settings (AppleMail).
  4. Say that I remove, read or respond a message in the tablet, when I access the ISP inbox using the gmail app in my smartphone I will see reflected the changes done by the tablet right? This way I can achieve certain kind of synchronization because gmail is archiving the ISP inbox and I am working from there.
  5. About the SSL, I understand that the communication between Gmail and the ISP would be in plaintext, however the communication between the tablet/smartphone/laptop and Gmail will use SSL. Am I correct?

Regards, Tao

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  • I think you are correct in all counts.
    – Aganju
    Jul 18, 2016 at 0:48

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Your assumptions are essentially correct, but instead of "access the ISP inbox using the gmail app", you'll access the gmail inbox directly. Gmail will fetch all messages transparently and the messages from your non-gmail account will show amongst your gmail messages, if there are any. You will also be able to reply to the ISP messages from inside gmail, as if you were using the original email client.

Here's how to achieve it:

  • Register a Google account, thusly creating a new gmail account
  • Either click "settings" -> "Accounts and import" or visit this address
  • Follow the steps from this official Google guide (see the A different email provider section)

To be able to send email, use the "Send mail as:" section of the settings page.

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  • We did something similar as a way to archive emails before we switched providers. That's the case. Sent mail won't be picked up - what we did was BCC any sent mail to the gmail mailbox with a script on our mail client.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Jul 18, 2016 at 1:26
  • Ok, I will do some tests before migrating my ISP email. Another question, how can I synchronize the old emails I received into the gmail account? Say that the ISP server only has emails from 2016 and in my devices (tablet/smartphone/laptop) I have emails from 2 years ago. The Gmail account will only receive emails from 2016 and not the older ones. How do I migrate?
    – Tao Soul
    Jul 18, 2016 at 4:25
  • I only know how to import old emails from Thunderbird for PC. Just set your gmail account (via IMAP) and then drag the messages there. Easy as that.
    – That Brazilian Guy
    Jul 18, 2016 at 18:55

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