GMail POP3 Checker for Greasemonkey and Chrome (Automatically!)
Introduction
I realize this script does not exist anywhere on the internet, and since I wrote this a while back and have been happily using it for quite some time I’ve decided to make it public. It’s quite a simple script. First, it’ll put a “POP3″ link at the very top right corner of your Gmail page. Second, based on what time interval (in minutes) you select (defaults is 8) it’ll automatically run it for you that often. No more of this waiting for Gmail to check it every 60 minutes stuff! If you do not want it to automatically check just set the time interval to None; this way you’ll at least have the link to manually click at any time.
Donate
Did this script change your life? (I like to think so)
Download
Click here to download this fancy script!
Downloading and/or installing this script signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Service.
If you’re feeling generous and appreciate the work I’ve done, and will continue to do, please consider donating (see above).
Please let me know if you have any other feedback pertaining to this script that may come in handy for future releases.
Installation Directions
| Firefox | You will first need to install an Add-on called Greasemonkey. Once this is installed and you’ve restarted Firefox come back to this page and click the download link to my script. A new type of popup will appear asking you to install it. Click “Install” and then refresh Gmail and you’re all set. To later remove or disable the script you can right-click on the Greasemonkey logo in your status bar (it looks like a monkey’s head), click “Manage User Scripts,” select “Gmail Select POP3 Now” and then either un-check “Enabled” or click “Uninstall.” Also removing the Add-on Greasemonkey will permanently uninstall it. |
| Google Chrome | Simply click my download link in this page. A little popup in chrome will appear at the bottom of your page asking if you want to enable/install it. Once you’ve enabled/installed it then refresh Gmail and you’re all set. To later remove or disable the script you can do so from your Extensions section of Chrome. |
| Opera | I personally have never done this but someone contributed a comment a while back with directions on how to do this. Basically you will need to download this Greasemonkey Emulator for Opera and then rename my script (aagmfunctions.js) to “00.gmfunctions.user.js” (or something along those lines). Then in the Opera configurations you need to add “opera:config#UserPrefs|UserJavaScriptonHTTPS” and check the main checkbox to enable it. |
| Internet Explorer (IE) | There is a Greasemonkey for IE executable available which I have yet to test. Theoretically if it’s using the same Greasemonkey library as Firefox you should be able to install it for IE and then include my script. Further installation directions are not provided and I cannot guarantee this will work. If you do discover this does (or does not) work please let me know. |
| Safari | There is a Mac only GreaseKit for Safari (and a couple other platforms) which will emulate Greasemonkey User Scripts. I have never tried this, but feel free to attempt it and let me know what you find out. |
FAQs
- When I view the Settings/Accounts page and click the “POP3″ link it doesn’t tell me it’s checking my mail, why?
The script runs asynchronously in the background and does not manipulate your view. Thus, you will not see the Settings/Accounts page inform you of the update. However, if you click the “View history” link next to any of your accounts appropriately one minute after clicking the “POP3″ link you’ll see that it truly has updated. - Will your script check more than one of my POP3 accounts?
The script will check every POP3 account you have entered into Gmail. - What is the minimum donation to unlock the additional settings?
The minimum donation is currently set to $1, and the average donation is approximately $4. However, no one likes to be average, right?
Change Log
December 13, 2011
- After another update by Google the placement broke, preventing the script from fully loading. This bug has been fixed.
December 9, 2011
- Fixed the misplaced POP3 countdown/text on the new Google header. It should now be located under your name or email.
December 5, 2011
- Required upgrade. If the upgrade doesn’t work in Firefox with Greasemonkey you may have to uninstall the previous version before installing the new one.
- Added support for new Google header.
November 13, 2011
- Fixed a bug where the script would error with missing element “:pn” if the setting for “Refresh” was turned on during start-up in Firefox 8.0.
August 1, 2011
- Fixed a bug introduced by a new version of Gmail which prevented the client side script from loading in Google Apps or non-Google+ Themed templates. This update is not required, but if you’re experiencing problems with your current client version 2/17/2011 loading you’ll want to upgrade. (Thanks Ertugrul)
July 25, 2011
- Fixed a cosmetic text-coloring issue caused by the new Google top-banner strip and other dark themes to better contrast the textual countdown.
February 23, 2011
- Added support to re-check if internet connectivity is lost. You will see the message “Connectivity Lost” and the script with start over at a 3 minute countdown if this happens. This may occur if you put your computer to sleep/hibernate, you enter offline mode, or you actually loose internet or drop wireless. (Thanks Vito E., and Jeff W.)
- Fixed a small cosmetic issue caused by the new Google top-banner strip.
February 17, 2011
- Added support for Gmail’s new top banner strip, but also kept backwards compatibility with Google Apps. This is HIGHLY Beta and may cause cosmetic issues. (Thanks Charles E., Bob, Lachelle, Benjamin N., and Chris)
- Required upgrade from September 25, 2010
November 3, 2010
- Gmail disabled their original user interface, making the script stop POP3ing. I had to change the method it’s using to request for POP3 updates. (Thanks Benjamin N. and Duncan)
October 14, 2010
- Optimized the Refresh setting to be more efficient.
- Fixed an issue where the Refresh setting would “flicker” the compose screen and navigate you to the top of the page. Now refreshes are only done in the background on any of the list pages: Inbox, Sent Mail, All Mail, Trash, etc. (Thanks Nick N. and Adam)
October 12, 2010
- Added full support for all Labs. Some Labs were preventing the POP3 link/counter from appearing or showing correctly; such as “Google Search.” (Thanks John-Paul C., Dave B., Jason S., and Matt V.)
- Fixed a broken link in the Terms of Service.
September 30, 2010
- Changed the mime-type of server requests to text/javascript to prevent warnings in Chrome. (Thanks Dave B.)
September 26, 2010
- Added popup with help information in the event an upgrade cannot be successfully made (Thanks Paul B.)
- Fixed a bug in Chrome caused by today’s earlier release due to a new line character in an alert box which Chrome does not support… Sorry! (Thanks David C., Mark H., and Pootle)
- Added the beta/new/experimental option to Refresh after POP3ing. Please let me know if you run into any issues while using it. (Thanks Daniel M., Dimas, and Halil O. for previously suggesting this feature)
September 25, 2010
- Added HTTPS support to prevent Chrome from throwing SSL Certificate issues (Thanks all who’ve donated as it helped pay for the server certificates)
- Corrected rare cosmetic issues with the header links (Thanks Aaron W.)
- Added Change Log to settings pane
- Fixed a bug implemented by Gmail’s source code which caused the setting’s pane to overtake the window in Firefox
- Required upgrade from September 9, 2010
September 9, 2010
- Added the Settings pane (AWESOME!)
- Request interval (3-60 minutes)
- Display “POP3″ in label
- Display time countdown in label
- Toggle POP3 on startup
- Donation link with toggle
- Reportable errors
- Now works in Google Apps sites! Hooray!
- Runs independently from the normal Gmail site and in as many Apps as you have open
- Displays “POP3 Accounts Missing” if none were found
- Centralizes the code for easy updating without requesting a new download (for most cases)
- Moved POP3 link from the far right to next to “settings”
- Loads instantaneously on slow or fast connections without fail.
- Makes less requests to Gmail to obtain account information.
- Sends out a POP3 request quietly and quickly (less than 1 second).
- Fixed many bugs which were incorrectly gathering the accounts email address needed to POP3 properly.
- Added script stealing preventions to protect the masses; and my reputation (sorry script kiddies).
- Tested stable in Firefox 3.6.9 and Chrome 7.0.503.0 dev
April 3, 2010 [download]
- This is the same exact release as “April 2, 2010 BETA” except I cleaned up the code and removed unnecessary lines of comments. It should now be stable and working properly again.
April 2, 2010 BETA [download]
- Gmail changed their authentication method with making requests to POP3 accounts. I’ve hacked their code once again to update the script accordingly.
- I had to remove the option to use iFrames for the requests as the new method can only be done via the POST method. However, it should still function the same.
February 25, 2010 [download]
- Fixed a very large bug where the number of POP3 accounts you had were miscounted by the script.This should only really affect people with more than 4 accounts, or people with 1. Oh… my silly simple arithmetic skills! (thank you Brad Stinson)
February 24, 2010 [download]
- Fixed a very large bug where if a POP3 account was ever deleted then any future accounts being added would not be checked. This implies any POP3 account deletion ever occurring, not just after my script was installed. If you’ve had problems with previous versions of this script not POP3ing your accounts, this probably will fix it. (thank you Robert/NRHTX).
- Fixed a bug where only accounts marked as “Send email as” would be checked. Now all POP3 accounts will be checked, regardless if you’ve set up Gmail to have the ability to send as themselves (thank you Julien Nephtali).
- Fixed a bug where the “Offline Mode” and “Labs Icon” in the header were not clickable (thank you Jerry Chong and JackieKu).
- Added support for “googlemail.com” accounts, which typically occur for the German, Chinese, and various other languages.
- Rolled back the AJAX cross-domain checking to an injected iFrame.
- Added the variable “useIframe” which will negate the last bullet point, allowing it to use AJAX instead of the iFrames. This should be left to “true” unless you experience issues, then try it as “false.”
February 21, 2010 [download]
- Fixed a huge bug produced by yesterday’s (2/20/2010) update which only let the counter count down once, check your mail, and then never counted again. Anyone who has the 2/20/2010 update should download the new one immediately (thank you emarell).
February 20, 2010
- Fixed a bug where if checkEvery was set to 0 the timer would start counting negative if you clicked the “POP3″ link (thank you Robert/NRHTX).
- Fixed a bug where certain Languages were not supported based on their unique code; such as German (thank you Fred).
- Changed the method of checking POP3 accounts from an injected iFrame to an AJAX call. Reason being that some people were reporting the update working (which uses AJAX), but not the actual checking of the POP3. This issue seems to have been affecting very few people, but hopefully it’s now fixed (thank you Fred and Reed).
February 19, 2010 (a & b)
Sorry! I hate to keep releasing new versions so often, I promise unless something goes drastically wrong this will be the last one for a while.
- Fixed a bug where if checkForUpdates was set to false (defaults to true) it wouldn’t countdown to a POP3 correctly.
- Corrected an issue where when updating a previously installed version of this script it wouldn’t do it successfully.
- Put a sleep buffer on the words “Fetching…” and “Done!” to confirm your POP3 accounts have been checked.
- Fixed a bug where if you had checkEvery set to 0 it would tell you to set it to a number larger than 3. This shouldn’t have happened since 0 should mean for the script to not automatically check.
- Added the variable sendAccountForUpdate (defaults to true) which will send me your account name for contact, update, and bug purposes. I will never share or sell your information in any way, but if something critical happens and the auto update fails this will be my last resort of contact. Otherwise never expect an email from me and the script will continue prompting you for an update if one occurs. If you turn this to false you wont hurt my feelings, but just know you’re limiting yourself from a drastic bug update in the future.
- Fixed a bug where if you had your Gmail settings for the number of conversations on the page changed to anything but three characters (say you selected “25″ instead of “100″) then it would not pull your account settings correctly, thus failing to POP3. (Thanks Chuck for pointing this out!; reason for version ‘b’)
February 18, 2010 (b)
- After today’s release I noticed some gmail images were being referenced from the wrong base url because of the way the script is pulling in your account data in the function findAccountInfo(). This has been corrected.
February 18, 2010 (THIS IS HUGE)
- Fixed a bug where if checkForUpdates was set to false or checkEvery was set to 0 the script would count up instead of have no count.
- Added the showCountdown flag which will allow you to turn the countdown off if it annoys you.
- Corrected a https security issue when checking my server for an update.
- And Probably the greatest improvement of all time: Everything now runs in the background asynchronously and will not navigate to the settings page. Yay! Appreciate this, because you have no idea how deep I had to dig into gmail’s source code to hack out your google identification number and session key to call the “Check mail now” links directly.
- Because everything runs in the background it’ll never tell you that you’re navigating away from a page when composing or replying to a message (which is just awesomeness all over).
- Dropped the default checkEvery time to 8 instead of 10 since it will no longer annoy you when composing a message.
- Added a check to make sure you’re not trying to check faster than every 3 minutes… since I’d LOVE if you didn’t get my script banned by Google.
- I’ve added a “Donate” button to this page (see above) if you’re feeling generous and appreciate the work I’ve done and will continue to do. Don’t feel pressured though!
February 14, 2010 [download]
- Added a count-down to the POP3 link.
- Prevented the script from POP3ing if you’re composing a new message.
February 11, 2010
- Fixed an issue where this wasn’t supported for Google Apps. Thank you Pootle and Ed for catching this!
February 9, 2010
- The bug where either Firefox 3.6 or Gmail’s Greasemonkey support became unstable, preventing this among other scripts to work, has been fixed. This script no longer uses Gmail’s Greasemonkey support.
- Updates were made to have more of an aggressive DOM manipulation.
- The ability for the script to check for updates has been made. It is on by default, but you’re more than welcome to turn it off by setting the checkForUpdates variable to false.
January 15, 2010 [download]
- Script was released in a stable state using Gmail’s Greasemonkey support
January 30th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
If I delete the POP3 from GMAIL, will it delete all my read/sent messages from the account? Is there a way to archive them and get to back to my original godaddy account? Not a godaddy fan, but i’m missing emails EVERYDAY that do not make it form the server to my gmail interface.
February 2nd, 2012 at 5:40 am
Hello Sydney,
I’m sorry you’re having problems with godaddy. Although my script has really no say in what godaddy actually sends you, I’d be more than happy to help. If you remove your godaddy POP3 account from Gmail it will not delete any previous emails it has already pulled into Gmail. If you wanted to search and find all emails sent to a particular account (and then delete them all) you could search for something like this: to:whatever@mydomain.com
Also, I’m not sure how familiar you are with DNS, but if you wanted to you could actually get rid of the option where godaddy is your email provider for whatever domain you use, and switch it to Google Apps. This way Google/Gmail will act as your email client and allow new emails to come in. It also allows you to have other features of Google, but what I do is just have my email automatically forwarded from my accounts to my main Gmail account. I have yet to have any issues with it. You can learn more here:
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html
Good luck!,
Daniel Slaughter
January 5th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Love your script! The Google “New Look” is fixed so long as the browser size doesn’t exceed 1024px wide. If the browser window is bigger than that, it still breaks. Thanks!
1024 or less: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11522/1024orless.jpg
Over 1024: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11522/over1024.jpg
January 8th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Thank you for reporting this. Sorry for the delay, but I was out of the country all last week. I will look into fixing this shortly (probably wont be until Wednesday/Thursday of this coming week). I’ll let you know when I’ve updated it.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:51 am
There are a lot of great browser scripts out there, but there are very few that I feel I really can’t get by without. Your script is fantastic. Thanks so much for putting together such a great tool, and for providing such incredible support along with it!
December 15th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
You’re more than welcome. Thank you so much for the feedback.
December 12th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Hey man I LOVE this addon! I use it SO MUCH…and you do a fantastic job keeping up with this. But today….for some reason…it just disappeared! Weird…..? Is another update coming? Just curious bro. Hey man, thank you for ALL the hard work you do. Cheers mate!
December 13th, 2011 at 5:48 am
I’m glad you like the script! I’m just writing to let you know I’ve already fixed the bug and I just released it. You may need to reinstall the script to see the update. If you have any other questions please let me know.
December 12th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Hi,
Sadly, your awesome script doesn’t work with Google’s “New Look”, at least on my account. The time count and dropdown simply disappear. What’s more, the interval I set (check every 3 minutes) isn’t working. I can confirm this by going to Mail Settings, and checking when the last pull from POP was.
When I choose to “temporarily switch to the old look” in Gmail, the script and controls pop back up and everything works as before.
For what it’s worth, I’m a $5 donor. I donated within the first 5 minutes of using this script because I thought it was useful/worth it. And now it doesn’t work at all. Kinda sad.
Simon
December 13th, 2011 at 5:49 am
I believe I’ve just fixed the problem you’re seeing. Could you give it another shot in the “New Look” and let me know if it works now?
December 8th, 2011 at 1:39 am
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Hope you develop it further, so I’m donating a little symbolic fee.
.. and to unlock options, of course 
Keep up the good work!
December 8th, 2011 at 5:23 am
Thank you for your donation!
I’m planning on keeping this script alive as long as I can. Currently there is a little cosmetic bug I need to fix with the new Google top-banner layout, but other than that I’m not sure how much further I can develop it. Do you have any suggestions for future improvements?
December 6th, 2011 at 5:51 am
Hi Daniel – I uninstalled the older version and installed the new one. The POP checker is now showing up, but there’s an issue with the placement: instead of being anchored to the top right corner of the screen it’s showing up on the row below. In my normal browser window size it shows up on top of the Gmail cog wheel pulldown menu (below my name / Google+ shortcuts) — though it will slide to the left if I shrink the browser width. (I can email you a screenshot if it would help.)
I tried disabling a few labs that have occasionally caused conflicts (Multiple Inboxes, Right-side Chat, etc), but none of that fixed the POP checker.
Has anyone else reported this issue? Thoughts/suggestions?
-Tom
PS: I’m using FF 8.0.1 on Mac 10.6.8
December 6th, 2011 at 5:56 am
Hello Tom, Not to worry as I’ve noticed that too. I’ll be moving it to a better location real soon. You can expect this change to be completed within the next few days. If you have any other questions please let me know.
December 6th, 2011 at 7:03 am
Oh okay – cool
December 5th, 2011 at 5:16 am
Stopped working for some reason.
December 5th, 2011 at 8:24 am
There was an update to Gmail from Google which caused it to break. Try re-installing my script as it has now been updated.
December 2nd, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I am running Firefox 8.0.1 and the script will not show at all
Your script 08/01/2011
December 3rd, 2011 at 10:44 am
Gmail/Google is in the process of rolling out a new top-banner strip which is essentially preventing the script from loading. I have not yet had this roll-out occur for me, but the moment it does I will fix the script and release a new version. I anticipate the new header strip should be rolled out by the end of the next week. If you have any other questions please do let me know.
December 5th, 2011 at 3:02 am
Looking forward to the update, getting emails every hour sucks
December 5th, 2011 at 8:23 am
I have updated the script to account for the new header. You may need to uninstall the current script (Firefox only) before installing the new one from the project’s page. If you have any other questions please let me know.
December 6th, 2011 at 7:59 am
hey, works all very well – didn’t need to reinstall or anything. Thanks for the hard work.
November 18th, 2011 at 11:15 am
hey i would like to try the webkit greasekit beta script as well if you don’t mind.
November 18th, 2011 at 11:44 am
I just emailed you the beta as an attachment. As always if you have any questions please let me know.
November 9th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Hi, I have tried to use your script on Safari without much luck. SIMBL and Greasemonkey are correctly installed and I get as far as clicking on your script above, which merely opens in an html page. My question is, how do I install the script to Greasemonkey? Many thanks and if I can install successfully I will definitely be donating to what looks like a great tool!
November 11th, 2011 at 7:04 am
Hello Andy, Although some people have reported getting the script to work properly in Safari I have not ever been able to reproduce it. I actually have a beta version of the script which runs in Safari if you would like to give it a try. I will email you the source code, but please do not share it as it is a very limited beta.
November 9th, 2011 at 10:31 am
doesn’t work for me
Don’t know why. is it maybe becouse the new gmail look?
November 11th, 2011 at 6:05 am
Hello Alete,
Are you possibly running an older version of Firefox? There is a conflict with the newest version of Greasemonkey, and you’ll simply need to either upgrade Firefox, or install the older version of Greasemonkey: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/file/131143/greasemonkey-0.9.11-fx.xpi?src=version-history
October 29th, 2011 at 10:00 am
I reverted back to Firefox 3.6.23 from the latest Firefox version. Everything seems fine except your Gmail pop checker stopped working. I can’t even get the menus for the checker. I installed your most recent version but no improvement. I run Windows 7 BTW. What suggestions do you have to get your excellent script working again?
October 31st, 2011 at 6:08 am
There is a bug in Firefox 3.X with the new version of Greasemonkey 0.9.12 which prevents my script from loading. I would suggest either upgrading your version of Firefox to 7.0.1 or, if you must keep Firefox 3.6.23, downgrading your version of Greasemonkey to 0.9.11. Here’s the direct link to install that: Greasemonkey 0.9.11
October 31st, 2011 at 9:16 am
Thanks for your help. I vaguely remembered the issue. It’s working again
October 26th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
This is AWESOME. Donation sent!
October 27th, 2011 at 4:19 am
Thank you Mark.
October 18th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Hi Daniel,
I’m using Windows 7 Ultimate, Firefox 7.0.1 and have tried both Greasemonkey 0.9.11 and 0.9.12. I’m connected to the internet and Gmail is working fine and no errors but the script say loading and when I try and click on the down arrow beside it nothing happens.
Thanks,
Kevin.
November 4th, 2011 at 8:40 am
Same problem. Just keeps saying “loading” in the upper right but nothing happens.
October 18th, 2011 at 7:51 am
For starters, great script…. but, I donated set it to 3 minutes and it worked perfectly for about 3 days. Now it just sits at the top of my gmail saying “loading…” but never does. Works perfectly on my laptop still but just not on my PC. I tried re-installing it on both and no love. Any ideas. It was worth a buck for the 3 glorious days!
October 18th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Hello Kevin,
I’m not exactly sure why this may be happening, but if you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions about the computer that is having issues I can see if I can try to diagnose and reproduce the issue:
1. What operating system and browser (with the browser version) are you using?
2. If you’re using Firefox, what version of Greasemonkey do you have installed?
3. Is/was the computer connected to the internet when you start up your Gmail?
4. Have you tried refreshing Gmail, while connected to the internet, to see if it loads?
5. And lastly, are you getting any Javascript errors from the script when it loads?
Please do note that an old version of Firefox 3.X with the new version of Greasemonkey 0.9.12 has a flaw due to a security issue bug the browser is reporting from the new version of Greasemonkey. So, if you do have Firefox 3.5/6 installed I would suggest trying to re-installed the last version of Greasemonkey 0.9.11 or upgrading your Firefox to version 7.1.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
October 11th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Just loaded your script a few hours ago.
Made a donation and decreased the checking intervals to 3 minutes. I hadn’t seen your note to leave it at 8. Just went to check my emails and found out I was locked out of gmail. this was the message “Unusual Usage – Account Temporarily Locked Down”.
Will changing interval to 8 min correct this?
October 11th, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Hello Marc,
It possibly could be because of this, or that you’re accessing your Gmail from two different computers at the same time, or have been refreshing it quite frequently. I for a while was writing a different script which constantly pinged Gmail and was banned for the longest of an hour. I would suggest turning it back up to 8 minutes and seeing if that helps any. I have been running the script for 8+ hours every weekday for the past year without any issues set at 8 minutes. If you have any other questions please do let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
October 1st, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Hi Daniel, great tool. Minor issue below, but it’s still worth the $5 I just sent.
For some reason, the script seems to be checking emails every minute (sometimes twice/minute) rather than every 8 mins like the countdown implies. Not sure if this is because of Firefox 7.0.1 (I just downloaded the new version of the browser, before I discovered your script).
When checking my Live account, I get this message:
“Error reading mail.
Server returned error “Error in LIST command: Exceeded the login limit for a 15 minute period. Redu…” (Yes, it really cuts off there and doesn’t give me more.)
But it seems to allow the check BEFORE a 15 minute interval, just not every minute.
Not sure if it’s a problem, but I saw somewhere on the site that you recommend not POPing in less than 8-minute intervals, so I thought I’d check in and see if you had a reco for me.
Again, it’s worth every penny, and thanks for throwing this out there.
Cheers.
October 3rd, 2011 at 5:45 am
Hello Arif,
What the script does is it navigates to your POP3 Accounts page in your settings, and then emulates a click on the “check mail now” links next to all of your accounts. Because Google/Gmail just sees this as you manually requesting to POP3 your accounts it will start to assume you want it to POP3 more often than what you’re asking it to. So, even if you have the script set to only pop every 8 minutes Gmail will actually start POP3ing every 1-3 minutes within about a half-hour of running the script. This is normal, and there is nothing to worry about. This is why I say not to run the script at anything less than 8 minutes as it’s pointless to do so.
As far as your error warning about 15 minutes: Your POP3 server for the account that is erroring appears to be limiting your POP3 usage to once every 15 minutes. Anything more than once every 15 minutes and it is denied and the server will not respond with the mail anyways. Some POP3 servers put these types of checks into place to help save them bandwidth, although we’re living in an instant world. Sadly this is not the scripts fault, or Gmail’s. You could try contacting your POP3 account provider to see if they can lift the time limit, or at least reduce it, but you may just continue to get these errors on this particular account. You can just simply ignore the errors, but keep in mind the emails will not come in any faster than once every 15 minutes for this particular account.
Hopefully that answers your questions, but as always if you have any others please do let me know!
September 14th, 2011 at 7:36 am
Hi Daniel,
Like everyone else when I found this I was happy as hell. Not only for myself but for my clients. We setup and teach small businesses how to use Google services to better manage their business. However their biggest complaint is the wait for the email check of their other accounts. So for some reason it is not working me. I see it installed and see the countdown but it is not pulling in any messages. I have tested it many times by having my wife send out a message to me and when the countdown ended nothing. But when I click the refresh button it pulled the message. I am running Windows 7 with Google Chrome BETA version 14.0.835.162 beta-m. If I can confirm it is working I and all my clients will donate.
Much thanks,
k
September 14th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Hello Kevin,
I’m sorry you are experiencing issues with the script! I’d like to help you resolve these issues as others may be having them as well. Your issue may be being caused for a few reasons, but the most noticeable may be the most simple. When the script has Google POP3 your accounts it fires off these requests in the background. Because of this Google doesn’t know of the new email in your inbox immediately. When you then click refresh Google pulls these new POPed emails in, and shows them to you. Google will automatically check itself for new emails once or twice a minute without doing this, but it does have a slight delay from when the POP3 was actually triggered. The option in my script titled “Refresh” was put into place to alleviate this by having the script automatically click the refresh button for you. However, this is in beta as it’s a new feature and doesn’t always work correctly. I will move this up on my list of to-do’s to hopefully integrate a less buggy automatic refresh formula.
But with that aside, and even when it doesn’t work, your emails shouldn’t have any more than a minute lag from when the POP3 counter is actually fired. To see that the script is actually working you can go into your Gmail settings, navigate to the Accounts and Imports page, and then click the “View history” link next to any of your imported POP3 accounts. You should see a log which looks like so, POP3ing quite often due to the script: http://screencast.com/t/6bG2gbvJbzS If your popup window does not look like this, and it is not POPing at the time you have selected then there is a bigger issue and we’ll need to look into this a bit further. Please do let me know if that is the case.
If you have any other questions or you discover anything new please do let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
September 14th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Thanks for your help Daniel. I now see what your saying. I checked where you told me and it was showing that is was checking properly there. Basically what is happening your script is checking and retrieving the mail but not showing it in the inbox feed. I see in the left column on my Inbox label that I have messages but cannot see them. But if I wait a minute the show up. Is this what you were talking about that will be fixed soon? Timeline?
Thanks for this script! How will I know when the fix is ready?
Fix this and not only will I and my clients donate, I will promote you on all my networks!
Let me know and again great job!
k
September 15th, 2011 at 4:46 am
Hello Kevin,
Currently I’m donating all of my free time developing an online interactive map to a local non-profit which helps feed children who would otherwise go without food. I would imagine this will set me back 1-2 weeks from fixing another script which is causing drastic server-side performance issues, which I have to rate as higher than the refresh button. Once I’m done with these two things, however, I will look into getting the automatic Refresh to work again. I apologize for this, but I cannot give an accurate ETA but I would imagine it will be at least 3-4 weeks. Until then your emails should still POP3 incredibly quicker, but just not deliver to your inbox for about a minute.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
September 9th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Hi Daniel
I have installed Greasemonkey but when I click on the link to install the script, I only get the page of script and not a pop-up asking me if I want to install the script. Am I doing something wrong?
thanks for everything you do for us “less than computer smart” individuals
September 9th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Read someone else’s comment – had to enable Greasemonkey – who would’ve thought
September 9th, 2011 at 10:53 am
Hi Daniel. I’ve been enjoying the full feature version for months. But a day or two ago it stopped working and the pop-up counter disappeared. I see the other comments about Greasemonkey mysteriously getting turned off, possibly due to a Firefox upgrade. How do I check whether that happened to me… Any ideas?
Thanks!
September 9th, 2011 at 11:25 am
OK, so I found the greasemonkey pull-down under Tools. And it was, indeed, off. So I turned it back on and the POP3 checker is working again. Only weird thing is the three-minute timer is still missing from the corner. Not sure what that means. Oh, well. As long as it still works. Love this product, BTW. Thanks again. C.
September 9th, 2011 at 11:32 am
Hello Charlie,
I’m glad you got it working! I’m not entirely sure why the counter wouldn’t be showing up, but you could try refreshing your browser’s page, or possibly restarting it. If that doesn’t work, does at least the word “POP3″ or the little settings drop down arrow exist? If so, make sure you have the option turned on for “Display time countdown in label.” Let me know what you find out.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
September 7th, 2011 at 10:32 am
Hey Daniel,
Everything was working fine with the full version and today I log into my account and it’s gone! I just updated to the latest version of firefox too. Please help!
September 7th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Oh, never mind it seems Greasemonkey had gotten turned off (and I downloaded your script again). Thanks!!
September 7th, 2011 at 10:45 am
No problem. Let me know if there is anything in the future I can help you with.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:37 am
Best dollar ever spent. Hope you do great.
August 31st, 2011 at 9:51 am
Hi there, I downloaded Greasemonkey for Firefox. After I click on your link above and then click ‘install’ nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
August 31st, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Hello Roy,
I’m sorry you’re having issues! Sometimes it takes a few seconds for a window to popup prompting you to install the script. You may need to fully restart Firefox as well to complete the Greasemonkey installation. There also may be a tiny fluke going on with my web server at the moment, and waiting and trying it again in a few hours may help. If you continue to run into problems after tomorrow please do let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
August 30th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Thanks for developing this! Donation coming your way to unlock settings
August 29th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
This works awesome $1.00 coming your way good people
August 27th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Thank You..! Works perfectly … and I’m happy to report all “nag” info hidden with my donation … and YES … this script changed my life..!! LOL
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:00 am
Exactly what I’ve been looking for..! However, is there a method to remove/hide the “POP3-Timer-Donate” info/text from the Gmail interface? Access to options/settings pane in “manage extensions” would be preferred.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:03 am
Hello Christian,
There should be a little arrow next to the POP3 countdown which will pop-up a settings pane with the options to enable or disable these features. The additional settings, however, are donation based to unlock them ($1 minimum). Otherwise the script will work with the default settings intact. If you have any other questions please do let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
August 5th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Hi Daniel,
The pop timer is still missing on the right hand side of the page even though i reinstalled the latest script. Do you think that this script is incompatible with chrome version 12.0.742.122 on windows XP.
August 1st, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Awesome work! it work perfectly. Thanks.
August 1st, 2011 at 11:20 am
Dear Daniel
Gmail has two interfaces. The new one with the gear icon at the right top and the old one with Settings/Help/Logout buttons. Your script do not work with the old version, i.e. I can’t see the POP3 timer at the right top. However, it works perfect with the new interface (using gear icon), on the other hand, Gmail has disabled this new interface for some users. In summary, I can’t use your script like some other users below. I has been a few weeks.
August 1st, 2011 at 11:25 am
Hello Ertugrul,
Thank you for reporting this! I’ll see if I can fix this shortly and let you know when I have found a solution.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
August 1st, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Hello Ertugrul,
I just released a bug fix for what you were reporting. You’ll need to download the new client version found on the main projects page, and then restart your browser, for the changes to take effect. Please do let me know as soon as you can if this is not working properly.
http://www.danielslaughter.com/projects/gmail-pop3-checker-for-greasemonkey/
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
August 1st, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Dear Daniel
It works perfectly now with the old interface. In my understanding Gmail is trying or experimenting something nowadays and they will activate the new interface (with the gear icon) for all users soon. Thank you for solving this annoying problem in such a short period of time.
Great work
Ertugrul
July 28th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Hi Daniel,
This script was working beautifully for the last 4 months and suddenly stopped retrieving mails a couple of weeks ago. The script doesn’t load & I no longer see the count down timer on the top right hand side and i have to manually retrieve the mails from my pop mail account or else wait for gmail to retrieve it at its own sweet time. I even turned off the autoupdate feature of chrome.
thanks
shiraj.
July 29th, 2011 at 4:55 am
Hello Shiraj,
I haven’t recently made any changes to the POP3 script, so it wouldn’t be that I broke it. It is possibly Gmail has changed on your account and it is no longer compatible with it. However, my guess is the reason you’re having difficulties is that my server did go through a little bit of a downtime yesterday and could be the reason why it wasn’t loading properly. Could you give it a shot today and let me know if it now works?
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
July 27th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Daniel’s script solves a very frustrating problem with Gmail! My install was effortless and I was happy to donate a few shillings for the ability to customize the settings. Works GREAT!
-Rob (Chrome 12.0.742.122 + Gmail)
July 26th, 2011 at 8:28 am
This app stopped working all of a sudden last week and i have tried uninstalling and reinstalling it but no success so far. I am on windows xp, google chrome version 12.0.742.122.
July 27th, 2011 at 4:28 am
Hello shiarj,
I will give it a shot in Google Chrome on Windows 7 (sadly I don’t have XP to test) when I get home to see if it is an issue in Chrome for windows. It seems to be working in Chrome for Mac version 12.0.742.122. When you say it stopped working, do you mean it still loads? How far does it get? If it doesn’t load does anything show up at all where it should? If it does load all the way, what is not working?
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
August 1st, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Hello! I think I may have solved your problem (sorry for the delay). Gmail changed their source code for some accounts causing this script to stop working properly. You’ll need to download the new script to see the changes:
http://www.danielslaughter.com/projects/gmail-pop3-checker-for-greasemonkey/
If this does not correct the issue please do let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
July 17th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
I bought this THINKING it would eliminate the problem of not getting my POP3 mail for up to an hour at a time – but it ONLY works when you have gmail open and running – so there is STILL no push.
So this did NOT do what I thought it would.
July 19th, 2011 at 8:53 am
Hello Laura,
You are correct in that the script will not work if your browser is not open to your Gmail account. What the script is doing is automatically navigating to your POP3 Settings page and clicking the “Check mail now” link on all of your accounts in the background. A “userscript,” which is what this is, is a script created to emulate or change the outcome of a webpage you’re currently on. Many userscripts exist, which require Firefox/Greasemonkey or Chrome to work properly. All of these userscripts require your browser be open to whichever page the script has permissions to. In the event of this script it is gmail.com.
I’m very sorry for any misunderstandings about this script you may have had, but I’d be willing to assist you with any other questions you may have.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 29th, 2011 at 9:02 am
So with this script, do I need to have gmail open in my browser? Or, once installed, will it force the check at the desired interval even if my browser is not running?
June 29th, 2011 at 9:27 am
Hello Ryan,
Sadly you’ll need to have your browser running for this script to wok, and open to Gmail. The script just emulates you navigating to your settings page, and then manually clicking all of the links to check your POP3 mail now. If there’s anything else I can answer please do let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 24th, 2011 at 6:24 am
Just as a heads up to anyone having problems with the script I found that I had downloaded a version in 2010 and one in 2011 and for some reason Greasemonkey decided to enable the old one and disable the new one. Just check to see which version is enabled.
June 24th, 2011 at 6:28 am
Ah yes. There was a very old one in 2010 that wouldn’t get replaced by the newer ones. I’d recommend just deleting the old one from Greasemonkey as it doesn’t work anymore anyways. Thank you for pointing that out for anyone having issues with an older copy.
June 24th, 2011 at 4:10 am
Dear Daniel
Your POP3 checker for Gmail a is a really nice product, and I can get my POP3 mails very efficiently with it.
I’m aware of this script for months and refused to use it some time, because I still can not understand why
this script requires your serves to work. I am an electrical engineer (PhD) and not an expert in programming, maybe
I am missing something. Does it regularly exchange information with your servers (with every fetching, start up etc.). If your
answer is not, than it is ok, if it is yes, there are still some question marks in my mind.
Thank you
June 24th, 2011 at 4:30 am
Hello Ertugrul,
The script connects to my server to verify donation unlocked settings, to verify someone didn’t steal the script and publish it as their own, and to push automatic updates to it. The script only connects to my server when you save your settings, and when your Gmail first starts up to check for updates. It does not transfer any emails, or confidential data of any sort. I wouldn’t ever want to get into the liability of that. It does NOT exchange information with my servers with each POP3 fetch, as there is no need to after it has loaded. As with any script or program, if you do not feel comfortable using it, then please don’t. If you have any other questions please let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 17th, 2011 at 3:54 am
Hi I ran the script and appear an error “location” in undefined, do you know how can I solve it?
Regards,
Diego
June 17th, 2011 at 6:13 am
Hello Diego,
I’d like to look into this for you, but I’ll need a little bit more information. What browser are you using, as well as the version number? What operating system are you using, as well as the version number? If you do not know where to locate these things just let me know and I can assist you further.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 15th, 2011 at 4:06 am
Glad you’re back, Daniel!
June 15th, 2011 at 7:28 am
Thanks David, I’m glad the server is back up too without any data loss. I was a little worried for a while there.
June 15th, 2011 at 12:32 am
please update this script, it no longer works.
June 15th, 2011 at 1:19 am
Hello Gareth,
My web servers were offline the last three days as my host encountered a hardware failure. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. The good thing is the POP3 script should be working again, and you’ll just need to restart your browser. However, if you continue to experience issues please let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 15th, 2011 at 4:02 am
Hello!
It’s pretty disturbing for a paid product… I can understand that problems happen, but I need information / proactive communication then. I saw yesterday that the emails came with delay, and that the plugin wasn’t working anymore. Could you improve for the next outage?
By the way… Why do the plugin need to communicate to your servers?
Kind regards
JM C
June 15th, 2011 at 8:03 am
Hello JM Croset,
I apologize for my server’s downtime, as I had no control over the time it was down. I was actively available on both twitter (@danielslaughter) and via email (me@danielslaughter.com) regarding the downtime/uptime of this script. Sadly since the server was down I wasn’t able to access the database to get a list of people to notify them of these issues.
The entire time the script was down, so were my domains (more than just danielslaughter.com) and I am already looking into a mirror fall-back solution in the event this happens again. Also please note this script is donation ware and works with the default settings as free. Because of this you don’t have to pay the minimum of a simple $1 to unlock the additional features, as it will work out of the box. Sadly, this an issue in itself because to get more servers in the event of a backup costs money, money which the donations for this script wouldn’t cover. But do not fret as the downtime of my blog alone, not including my 20+ other domains I host, are enough value to me to keep up that there will be a mirrored solution in the near future.
The plugins need to communicate with the server for pushed updates, as well as authentication to verify if your particular script has access to the donation unlocked settings. Google’s Gmail constantly makes updates, sometimes on a daily basis, to where routine maintenance on this script is necessary. Without server communication you’d be manually updating the script on a daily basis, and re-entering your credentials to show you previously donated, like it was when it first released.
Hopefully that all answered your questions in full, but if not I’m always here for any questions or feedback you may have. And once again, I apologize for the downtime over the past couple days and will continue to strive to provide great service in the future.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 5th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
The new version of gmail seems to have meant that this has stopped working – says it is installed in firefox (on mac) but doesnt show the icon in gmail or seem to work
Good stuff btw Daniel
June 6th, 2011 at 4:47 am
Hello Duncan,
As with all Google products they’re probably slowly rolling out this new version of Gmail and they have yet to roll it out to my account. I will make sure the new version of Gmail works with this script the moment they push it out to me, but sadly I haven’t gotten it yet.
I’ll let you know the moment I do, and I’ve fixed it. And as always, thank you for letting me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
August 1st, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Hello duncan,
I just released a new version of the script today which may fix your issues. Could you download it and tell me if it now works properly?
http://www.danielslaughter.com/projects/gmail-pop3-checker-for-greasemonkey/
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
June 3rd, 2011 at 6:11 am
Thank you! Great plugin!
Fab
May 23rd, 2011 at 3:58 am
Hi Daniel:
I installed the script, but I didn’t find POP3 link at the top of page. I’m sure it is enabled. I have no idea what happened. Could you give me some advice? Thanks.
May 23rd, 2011 at 3:59 am
I’m using Chromium 10.0.648.204.
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:39 am
Hello Nick,
When you say you’re using Chromium do you mean Google Chrome, or a third party browser using the open source Chromium project?
If you are using Google Chrome could you verify the script is installed/enabled by going to Window > Extensions, and then finding the extension called “Gmail Check POP3 Mail Now?” If it is installed you may still need to restart Google Chrome (or your browser) before the settings take effect. Once that’s done if you go back to Gmail and you should see it listed. If not, please let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
April 26th, 2011 at 4:11 am
Hi Daniel,
Just a little curious about how the script works because I have been searching for something like this for a LONG time! I want to install with chrome, but I am curious… does this work only with my browser or does it interface with my Gmail account itself and basically go to “accounts and import” and then “check mail now” (except it does so without having to manually go in and do it)? The reason I ask is because I am going to setup Gmail to check my office pop3 email address. Then I am going to setup my android so that the emails are pushed right there – but I would like to avoid the 60 minute stuff (really annoying and no idea why Google thinks 60 minutes is acceptable – a lot can change in 60 minutes!!)
If this script works well (free of bugs, etc), I will be suggesting it to a number of my clients and ask them to leave donations (I will leave one as well).
Thanks!
Dave
April 26th, 2011 at 4:28 am
Hello David,
You are correct in your assumption in how the script works. It is simply running background processes to POP3 your email automatically by the same means you would have to navigate to the POP3 Accounts page and click on all of the “fetch mail now” links. I as well use an Android and as long as your web browser is open on your computer (other wise the script wont be running) all of the emails it POP3s will automatically be pulled into your phone shortly there after too.
As of date this script should be free of bugs, however if you find any please let me know and I’d be happy to fix them. I POP3 my work emails and I too feel 60 minutes is a tad-bit too slow. If you have any other questions please feel free to let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
April 20th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Just came across your script. Good idea!! This should have been thought of by the Google people!! Anyway, what I wanted to ask is, can I change the 8minute interval somehow??
Thanks again.
April 20th, 2011 at 4:03 am
Hello Noel,
This script is “donation ware” in that out of the box it will POP3 every 8 minutes by default, but if you want to decrease or increase that interval (an other settings) then any donation over $1 will automatically unlock the other settings for you. To do this you should see a little arrow next to the 8:00 minute countdown in Gmail. If you click that, and then follow any of those links to donate through Paypal you should be all set. If you have any other questions please let me know.
Thank you,
Daniel Slaughter
April 15th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Fantastic little app – it works perfectly. Thank goodness too because I love my Gmail and this fixes one of the few concerns I have with it.
thanks Daniel!