Problems receiving emails on multple devices.

[mbails]

Have always received talktalk emails on laptop and iPad OK. Recently using new iPad as well as old one but new iPad does not receive all emails, often a batch of several not received.  Now in process of setting up additional new computer but something weird happening. New computer received todays emails when I switched on but as soon as I activated Outlook on old laptop all emails came up on laptop and simultaneously disappeared from new computer.  This happened yesterday as well.  Is there a limit to the use of muliple devices receiving emails at the same location or is something else happening?  Help please.

[Gondola]

Hi @mbails

The answer is to use IMAP email account settings for all your devices.  There's no limit to the number of IMAP clients you can set up for the one account although there is usually a limit on concurrent connections.

But first a heads-up that there has been an issue today with webmail, then with the new TalkTalk Mail platform not communicating with email clients and apps. I believe the issues are now all fixed.

Whilst the issues may have been complicating your testing and setup of email clients and mobile devices my diagnosis is that you've not got all email clients and apps using accounts set up for IMAP protocol. 

It is best to have all clients and apps using IMAP so that they all synchronise with the talktalk server mailbox and each one sees what's in the mailbox.  If you delete an email via any device then that email will be deleted from the server mailbox and that will synchronise to all other devices the next time they connect.

My diagnosis is that the old laptop is set up with a POP3 mail account that by default is downloading the mailbox and then deleting all emails.  When the new computer synchronises with the mailbox it finds that there are no emails which is why they all appear to disappear.

So the fix is to make sure all email clients and apps are set up as IMAP accounts.

The TalkTalk.net email settings you need are:

Account Type	IMAP
Login / Username	username@talktalk.net
Password	Yes
Incoming mail server	mail.talktalk.net
Incoming Port	993
Incoming Security	SSL
Outgoing mail server	smtp.talktalk.net
Outgoing Port	587
Outgoing Security	STARTTLS
Outgoing Authentication	Yes

Use plain unencrypted password for authentication.

Here's some more advice on changing from POP3 to IMAP

If you have any setup questions then post back and I'll do my very best to help you get a complete fix.