- Products
- Purchase
Order Online Maintenance Renewal Resellers - Support
Helpdesk Online Documentation Web Forum - Our Clients
- About
About us Services Contact
WebMail Pro 
MailBee.NET Objects 
MailBee.NET Queue 
MailBee Objects 
MailSuite Pro for Linux
MailSuite Pro for Windows Synchronization modes. How do they work?
MailSuite Pro
MailSuite Pro
MailSuite Pro
WebMail Pro
WebMail Pro
WebMail Pro
.NET
.NET
.NET
PHP
PHP
PHP
WebMail Pro can download e-mail messages (or their parts) from mail servers and store the downloaded messages in its storage. This is some kind of cache which reduces number of connections to the mail server and increases performance in most cases. E.g. if the entire message is stored in WebMail Pro storage and you need to view it, WebMail Pro won't connect to the mail server, it'd retrieve message data from its storage instead. Moreover, you can configure WebMail Pro to delete messages from mail servers once they have been placed in the storage and that would increase free space in your mailboxes.
Let's clarify what WebMail storage is. That's a place on the filesystem or in database where WebMail Pro stores messages (or their headers only) downloaded from the mail server. By default, messages are stored on the filesystem, but you can make them get saved into database instead via changing <StoreMailsInDb>0</StoreMailsInDb> to 1 in \DATA\Settings\settings.xml. It's IMPORTANT to change this setting when the storage is empty (i.e. no messages have been yet downloaded into any of existing WebMail Pro accounts). Otherwise, all the messages already downloaded would have become unreadable.
Synchronization modes (sync modes) determine how folders in WebMail storage are synchronized with the appropriate folders on the mail server. Different sync modes can be set for each folder of an IMAP account (Manage Folders screen). However, in case of POP3 account, you can set sync mode for Inbox folder only as POP3 protocol doesn't provide folders other than Inbox, all other folders only exist in WebMail Pro storage, NOT on the mail server. Sync modes are:
Don't synchronize: this folder in WebMail Pro storage doesn't depend on any folder on the mail server, messages will not be downloaded from the mail server into that folder when you click Check Mail. However, if you set up some filters for other folders which make downloaded e-mails transferred into this folder, e-mails may appear in this folder even if its status is set to Don't synchronize.
Direct Mode: WebMail Pro accesses messages directly in the folder on the mail server, neither message headers nor entire messages are stored in WebMail Pro own storage. Some advanced features like search (available for IMAP accounts in case of support on mail server side), sorting, filtering are not available in this mode as they cannot work without WebMail Pro storage. This limitation is set by POP3 and IMAP protocols which provide less features than WebMail Pro storage.
Headers Only: WebMail Pro downloads and stores only message headers when you press "Check Mail" button. These headers are used for displaying message list, sorting, filtering and search. However, search works for headers only. When you need to view the message body or its attachments, WebMail Pro downloads the entire message from the mail server and displays it but doesn't place it into the storage.
Entire Messages: entire messages are downloaded and stored in WebMail Pro storage on "Check Mail". This mode provides all the features. Stored messages are used for all the operations including search in entire messages. WebMail Pro never re-downloads messages which have already been downloaded.
For IMAP accounts, Headers Only and Entire Messages modes have two submodes: All Headers/New Headers and All Messages/New Messages. The difference is that New Headers/Messages downloads only new headers/messages while All Headers/Messages modes additionally synchronize flags for messages downloaded in the past. All Headers/Messages mode is useful for IMAP accounts which are accessed not only via WebMail Pro, but also via other e-mail clients (e.g. Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird). If you read a message via another e-mail client, it's marked as "seen" on the IMAP server. To get its "seen" status in WebMail Pro, it's necessary to synchronize the flags.
With sync modes, you can distribute working load and disk space consumption between the mail server and WebMail Pro storage. Direct mode - more load on the mail server, Entire Messages - more load on WebMail storage, Headers Only - the golden mean. We recommend using Headers Only in most cases, but if you need to fully migrate messages to WebMail Pro storage (i.e. delete messages from the mail server after downloading) or/and search in message bodies, you should use Entire Messages mode.
Changing sync mode is not supported for XMail accounts type (available if you use AfterLogic MailSuite Pro bundle), All Headers mode is used. Message bodies and attachments are accessed in AfterLogic XMail Server Pro storage directly. This account type provides the best performance due to direct access to mail storage without POP3/IMAP connections.
Let's clarify what WebMail storage is. That's a place on the filesystem or in database where WebMail Pro stores messages (or their headers only) downloaded from the mail server. By default, messages are stored on the filesystem, but you can make them get saved into database instead via changing <StoreMailsInDb>0</StoreMailsInDb> to 1 in \DATA\Settings\settings.xml. It's IMPORTANT to change this setting when the storage is empty (i.e. no messages have been yet downloaded into any of existing WebMail Pro accounts). Otherwise, all the messages already downloaded would have become unreadable.
Synchronization modes (sync modes) determine how folders in WebMail storage are synchronized with the appropriate folders on the mail server. Different sync modes can be set for each folder of an IMAP account (Manage Folders screen). However, in case of POP3 account, you can set sync mode for Inbox folder only as POP3 protocol doesn't provide folders other than Inbox, all other folders only exist in WebMail Pro storage, NOT on the mail server. Sync modes are:
Don't synchronize: this folder in WebMail Pro storage doesn't depend on any folder on the mail server, messages will not be downloaded from the mail server into that folder when you click Check Mail. However, if you set up some filters for other folders which make downloaded e-mails transferred into this folder, e-mails may appear in this folder even if its status is set to Don't synchronize.
Direct Mode: WebMail Pro accesses messages directly in the folder on the mail server, neither message headers nor entire messages are stored in WebMail Pro own storage. Some advanced features like search (available for IMAP accounts in case of support on mail server side), sorting, filtering are not available in this mode as they cannot work without WebMail Pro storage. This limitation is set by POP3 and IMAP protocols which provide less features than WebMail Pro storage.
Headers Only: WebMail Pro downloads and stores only message headers when you press "Check Mail" button. These headers are used for displaying message list, sorting, filtering and search. However, search works for headers only. When you need to view the message body or its attachments, WebMail Pro downloads the entire message from the mail server and displays it but doesn't place it into the storage.
Entire Messages: entire messages are downloaded and stored in WebMail Pro storage on "Check Mail". This mode provides all the features. Stored messages are used for all the operations including search in entire messages. WebMail Pro never re-downloads messages which have already been downloaded.
For IMAP accounts, Headers Only and Entire Messages modes have two submodes: All Headers/New Headers and All Messages/New Messages. The difference is that New Headers/Messages downloads only new headers/messages while All Headers/Messages modes additionally synchronize flags for messages downloaded in the past. All Headers/Messages mode is useful for IMAP accounts which are accessed not only via WebMail Pro, but also via other e-mail clients (e.g. Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird). If you read a message via another e-mail client, it's marked as "seen" on the IMAP server. To get its "seen" status in WebMail Pro, it's necessary to synchronize the flags.
With sync modes, you can distribute working load and disk space consumption between the mail server and WebMail Pro storage. Direct mode - more load on the mail server, Entire Messages - more load on WebMail storage, Headers Only - the golden mean. We recommend using Headers Only in most cases, but if you need to fully migrate messages to WebMail Pro storage (i.e. delete messages from the mail server after downloading) or/and search in message bodies, you should use Entire Messages mode.
Changing sync mode is not supported for XMail accounts type (available if you use AfterLogic MailSuite Pro bundle), All Headers mode is used. Message bodies and attachments are accessed in AfterLogic XMail Server Pro storage directly. This account type provides the best performance due to direct access to mail storage without POP3/IMAP connections.