using alias with IMAP - claws mail

[damoz]

Hi, I have 5 alias in my fastmail account and a folder for each. I never use my login account to send mail, always one of the alias. Decided to give IMAP a go and installed Claws Mail. Everything works fine in there, I can see all the folders I created and all the emails have been synced.

What I don't understand is how do I get all my alias in there so when I compose or reply to an email, I can select an alias in the "FROM" field as I do using the fastmail web interface. As it is now, the only choice I have is my fastmail login account.

Hopefully someone can help, I've searched and 'Startpaged' ... (I don't 'google' any more ).

[misc]

Hi Damoz,

that depends on the mail client you are using. Some of them can handle several identities for one mail account (e.g. Apple Mail on iOS).

If your client doesn't support this you'll have to set up a separate mail account for each address you want to send from. Then you can decide whether to send mails over the FastMail SMTP server of if you prefer sending them over the SMTP of the original mail provider and just put the copy of the sent mail into your Sent folder in your FastMail account.

Sounds little bit confusing, doesn't it? But actually it isn't at all. You just have to find out about the options of your mail client and then choose the way you want to go …

[damoz]

Misc ... it is confusing to me but that worked great! I setup another account using an alias address ... but with all the same mail server settings ... a little head banging as I forgot one little detail for a bit ... but finally it works fine. Thanks!

For the record, I'm fooling around learning stuff. Nice to get something working and appreciate the help!

[BritTim]

Just a little wrinkle to consider: if each of the accounts you setup use IMAP, your client will try to download the mail separately for each account. This is both wasteful in terms of space and bad for performance. Usually, it is better to just have a single IMAP account with the others being defined as POP accounts. On the POP accounts, you disable automatic downloading of email and ensure "leave on server" (or whatever it is called for your client) is set to avoid accidents.

While doing this, you might also check if your client supports not saving outgoing mail. If so, make use of this feature and rely on saving the email directly on the server using the 'save on SMTP' feature of Fastmail's personalities.

[gardenweed]

Originally Posted by damoz

Hi, I have 5 alias in my fastmail account .....

What I don't understand is how do I get all my alias in there so when I compose or reply to an email, I can select an alias in the "FROM" field as I do using the fastmail web interface. As it is now, the only choice I have is my fastmail login account.

You need to create a Personality for each alias that you wish to use in the manner you describe. Once you create a Personality, you will find it available in the From field of the compose screen.
Go to Settings -> Advanced -> Personalities

[Jacinto]

Originally Posted by damoz

Hi, I have 5 alias in my fastmail account and a folder for each. I never use my login account to send mail, always one of the alias. Decided to give IMAP a go and installed Claws Mail. Everything works fine in there, I can see all the folders I created and all the emails have been synced.

What I don't understand is how do I get all my alias in there so when I compose or reply to an email, I can select an alias in the "FROM" field as I do using the fastmail web interface. As it is now, the only choice I have is my fastmail login account.

Hopefully someone can help, I've searched and 'Startpaged' ... (I don't 'google' any more ).

Hello damoz.

Just set-up a separate account for each alias in Claws-Mail. When it asks for "Protocol" choose "None (SMTP only).

You should then enter your main Fastmail user name and password in the "Send" page for "SMTP Authetication"

Good luck.

--
Jacinto

[DrStrabismus]

If you just setup one, you can then copy it from "edit accounts".

[Jacinto]

Originally Posted by DrStrabismus

If you just setup one, you can then copy it from "edit accounts".

That's great advice that will save the OP a lot of time.

--
Jacinto

[damoz]

I will have to reread those suggestions above and apply them later ... thanks. Something else I need to figure out first. Couple of odd things are happening.

For one I think I'm missing emails in Fastmail ... as I did not get an alert that there were 5 more replies to this thread.

[Jacinto]

Originally Posted by damoz

For one I think I'm missing emails in Fastmail ... as I did not get an alert that there were 5 more replies to this thread.

Did you check the Spam box?

--
Jacinto

[janusz]

Originally Posted by damoz

I did not get an alert that there were 5 more replies to this thread.

You won't get subsequent alerts if you don't read the first new reply.

[damoz]

Originally Posted by janusz

You won't get subsequent alerts if you don't read the first new reply.

Originally Posted by Jacinto

Did you check the Spam box?

--
Jacinto

Nothing in Spam ... and maybe I missed one alert ... also didn't know that little rule on subsequent alerts ... thanks!

Just setting up an account now as suggested with the "None (SMTP only)" ... I see that in the setup and will give it a go. I like the 'Copy' too, that will save time! So many tricks

[damoz]

Originally Posted by Jacinto

Hello damoz.

Just set-up a separate account for each alias in Claws-Mail. When it asks for "Protocol" choose "None (SMTP only).

You should then enter your main Fastmail user name and password in the "Send" page for "SMTP Authetication"

Good luck.

--
Jacinto

Awesome ... works perfect thank you!

Originally Posted by DrStrabismus

If you just setup one, you can then copy it from "edit accounts".

I set up 5 ... actually 6 accounts using 'copy' in just a few minutes ... just had to type the email addresses in each after the 1st one ... slick, thanks!


I also got TorBirdy working with Thunderbird to hide IP address. Got one address setup with IMAP so I will try to apply this same principle in there with the alias.

Fun fun fun Thanks ppl for the help!!!

[janusz]

Originally Posted by damoz

didn't know that little rule on subsequent alerts

May be you should read these alerts.... They look like this (my emphasis):

xxxx has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled yyyyyy in the FastMail Forum forum of EmailDiscussions.com.

This thread is located at:
http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=nnnn&goto=newpost

There may be other replies also, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,
EmailDiscussions.com

[damoz]

Originally Posted by janusz

May be you should read these alerts.... They look like this (my emphasis):

Well I am getting lots of email alerts now ... the world is somehow right again I must have been busy and then with no more alerts I almost missed all these great tips. I would just see the email and not bother reading it to the end. Gottcha.