How do I back up emails from Gmail or Outlook.com to Synology MailPlus?

Purpose

You can keep a copy of emails from email providers with POP3 support, such as Google Workspace (Gmail) and Outlook.com, to your Synology MailPlus. This article will guide you through how to set up POP3 fetching.

Resolution

1. Install the MailPlus suite

You have to install the MailPlus suite to fetch emails via POP3. See if your NAS is compatible with MailPlus.

For detailed instructions on the package setup, refer to the following articles:

2. Check if POP3 fetching is enabled

A MailPlus administrator can decide whether or not to allow POP3 fetching. If an administrator has disabled the function, then client users cannot access external emails via POP3.

If you are a client user, check the following:

Click the account in the upper-right corner and select Settings from the drop-down menu.
Check if there is POP3 Fetch on the left panel.
- If so, continue to the next section.
- If not, contact your system administrator.

If you are the administrator, follow the steps below to enable POP3 fetching:

Launch Synology MailPlus Server.
At Service > MailPlus Client > POP3, tick Allow users to receive email from external POP3 servers.
Click Apply to save the settings.

3. Configure your external email account

Configure the POP3 settings of your external email account and grant MailPlus access.

Google:
1. Set up POP3 in Gmail.
2. Access your Google Account using an App Password.
Yahoo!:
1. Generate an app password for MailPlus.
2. Set up POP3 in Yahoo Mail.
Outlook.com: Set up POP3 in Outlook.com.
Others: Refer to their official documentation for instructions.

4. Set up POP3 fetching in MailPlus

Sign in to MailPlus to set up your external email account.

Click the account in the upper-right corner and select Settings from the drop-down menu.
In the pop-up window, click POP3 Fetch on the left panel.
Click Add and specify the required information:
- Email: Enter the full email address of your external account (i.e., username@email_domain).
- Service provider: Select from the pre-defined email providers, or select Custom POP3 server to specify the provider.
- POP3 server: Enter the POP3 server address (e.g., mail.company.com).
- POP3 port: Enter the POP3 server port.
- Username: Enter the username of your external email account.
- Password:
  - Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook/QQ: Enter the app password.
  - Custom POP3 servers: Enter the regular password of your external email account.
- Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail: Tick the checkbox to safely fetch emails from the custom POP3 server via an encrypted connection.
- Delete original copies on POP3 server: Enabling this option will erase emails from the external email account. It is recommended not to enable this option unless you have special consideration.
- Save incoming messages in: Select or create a mailbox to keep the fetched emails.¹
- Set the range for your first POP3 fetch: Fetch emails within the specified time frame.
Click OK. The external email account will be listed.
Click OK. You can find the fetched emails in the specified mailbox.

Notes:

When emails fetched via POP3 are sent to any mailbox other than Inbox, filters will not be applied.
Only new emails will be fetched from the source inbox.
If you cannot fetch the latest emails from Gmail, follow the steps below, which are based on Google's instructions, to troubleshoot the issue:
1. Go to MailPlus > Settings > POP3 Fetch.
2. Select your Gmail account and click Edit.
3. In the Username field, add recent: in front of your email address (e.g., recent:example@gmail.com).

Further reading

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