Why don't I get u3a emails?

The emails get sent - honest. But several people claim they don't get them, or that they get them intermittently.

There's nothing special or different about Hayling Island u3a emails. In fact, when people manage to track them down, they usually find emails from other people have gone astray too.

This note will hopefully help you find out where they are going and how to make sure they arrive OK.

It describes:

  • Some basic principles
  • The main reasons for emails going astray
  • What you can do about it
  • What we can do about it
  • Some specific step-by-step instructions

The basics

So let's start by getting some terminology straight. It's important as you'll see later.

Here's how you get your emails...

Incoming emails

Emails arrive from the Internet to your Email provider where they get stored waiting for you to pick them up. You use a device (such as a PC, tablet or smartphone) which connects to your Email provider via an Internet Service Provider to pick up your emails.

For example:

  1. Emails you send to me go to our Email Provider: Vidahost. I use BT as my Internet Service Provider to read them.
  2. Someone with an address xxx@virginmedia.com probably uses Virgin as both Email provider and Internet Service Provider.
  3. If you use Gmail from a smartphone, then Google is your Email provider and the company you pay the phone bills to is your Internet Service Provider.

There are two basic ways to read your email:

WebMailAndProgram

Click either link for more detail...

Webmail

You use a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Chrome to get your emails. A typical Webmail page looks something like this (click to see a larger image):

Webmail

Nothing is stored on your device. Instead your emails are stored by your Email provider. You need an active internet connection to read your emails.

Note the 'Spam' folder on the left hand side. Some Email providers filter your emails for malicious or unwanted emails. Any they think you don't want get sent direct to your spam/junk folder and never arrive in your inbox.

Your web browser doesn't filter emails so there's only one place to look for spam emails.

Email program

You use an Email program - for example: Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail - to read your emails.

A typical email program looks something like this (click to see a larger image):

 

Email program

Emails are stored on your device so you don't need an internet connection to read them.

Note the 'Junk E-mail' folder on the left hand side. All good email programs filter your emails for malicious or unwanted emails. Any they think you don't want get sent direct to your spam/junk folder and never arrive in your inbox.

Unfortunately, it can be more complicated. Your Email provider might also be filtering your emails. This works one of three ways:

  1. Your Email provider does not filter - instead it relies on your email program to do that
  2. Your Email provider looks for unwanted emails and it puts a flag on any it finds. Your email program can read the flag and send the unwanted emails to your email program's Spam/Junk folder
  3. Your Email provider has its own Spam/Junk folder so unwanted emails can end up in two places: your email program and your Email provider. You'll need to use Webmail (see above) to see your Email provider's Spam/Junk folder.

There's nothing to stop you using both methods simultaneously. For example, you can use Webmail to pick up your emails if you don't want to take your PC on holiday with you.

So where are the U3A emails going?

There are two main problems:

Spam filters

This is the most common problem. Our emails are being detected as 'unwanted' emails and are getting sent directly to a Spam or Junk folder. You are receiving them, but they never appear in your inbox.

Developers of email software and services fight a constant battle to try to keep unwanted emails (spam) from getting through to you. Each measure they introduce creates a reaction from spammers to get around it. Legitimate emails get caught up in the battle and get marked as spam incorrectly.

If you read your emails via Webmail, there's only one place to look for a Spam/Junk folder. It will appear as a folder in the Webmail page. Sometimes it's always visible (like the example above). Other times you might need to click a triangle or a menu option to see it.

If you use an email program, there are two places to look: your email program will have a Spam/Junk folder and your Email provider might have one too. You might need to click around to see your email program's Spam/Junk folder. You'll need to use Webmail to see your Email provider's one.

Conflicting email programs

You might be picking up emails through multiple devices. For example:

  • You might have more than one PC at home
  • Maybe you have a tablet and a PC
  • Perhaps you use a smartphone, tablet and multiple PCs (like I do)!

Typically email programs install themselves using a protocol called POP (Post Office Protocol). By default, emails are copied down to your device and automatically deleted from your Email provider.

So, depending on which devices you have switched on, your emails could be going to any of them and might never appear on any others. That can get very confusing, especially if you have multiple Email providers!

What can I do about it?

You can:

Tell your provider/program that our emails aren't spam

You can usually tell a provider/program to trust emails coming from our domain - haylingu3a.org. That will stop any emails from addresses ending in @haylingu3a.org from being treated as spam/junk.

That's the best option because it trusts all our emails in a single step.

Second best is to trust individual email addresses such as xxx@haylingu3a.org - you'll need to register each email individually.

We provide some specific instructions later on but typically you either:

  • right click an email from Hayling u3a and choose menu options that allow you to trust the email's domain or address; or
  • use menu options to set up a rule that sends all incoming Hayling u3a emails to your inbox.

If you use an email program, it might have a rule to respect spam flags set by your Email provider. If that's the case, you might need to do some fiddling to make sure your trust rules are executed before the spam flag is checked.

Use your address book to identify 'safe' email addresses

First you add the email addresses - such as xxx@haylingu3a.org - to your email address book. There's often an option to do that if you right click a Hayling u3a email. You'll need to trust each email address individually.

Then you use an 'options' page/screen to tell the provider/program to trust all email addresses in your address book.

You'll also need to make sure you aren't also choosing to add all new recipients to your address book otherwise you'll automatically trust any recipient that gets through your spam filter.

Train your provider/program to accept our emails

You tell your provider/program when it mistakenly sends an email to a spam/junk folder. You just tick a 'Not spam' option when reading an email in your spam/junk folder. That's arguably the simplest method, but it will take a while for the filter to learn your intention and there's plenty of scope for it to 'misunderstand'.

Prevent email program conflicts using POP

In the options for each email account you will usually find a way to 'leave emails on the server' rather than delete them as you read them. If you set up all your devices to do that, you won't get emails disappearing when devices read them.

That way every email will be visible on every device.

Your Email provider will probably impose a limit on the amount of email it will store for you so you'll need a way to delete emails from your Email provider as you process them. Typically you'll have one or more of the following options to delete emails held by your Email provider:

  • A delete option in your program
  • An option to delete when you move an email from your inbox
  • Use Webmail to do the deletion

Alternatively, you could switch to a protocol known as IMAP...

Prevent email program conflicts using IMAP

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It's a more recent protocol than POP and the main difference is that it is designed to allow multiple devices to work concurrently with emails held by an Email provider.

If one device moves an email to, say, a u3a folder all the other devices will start seeing it in their u3a folder too. If one device deletes an email, it will be deleted for all the other devices too.

Switching from POP to IMAP is usually just a matter of switching the protocol used by each device in the 'account' options.

Why can't you do something about it?

That looks a bit complicated, can't you do something at your end?

Well we do what we can. We:

  • Use good practice
  • Implement protocols requested by email providers to prove our emails are genuine
  • Send emails from Amazon servers which have a good reputation

However:

  • ISPs and Email providers seem to ignore the protocols they request and one 'bad apple' sending spam from the same server as us, can tar us with the same brush (something the protocols are designed to prevent!)
  • People that write spam filters keep their rules to themselves - understandable because they don't want spammers to know how to by-pass them. But it means we have little guidance for stopping emails from being treated as spam.

Sorry.

Step-by-step instructions

Here's some step-by-step instructions. We'll build on the initial list over time. You can help. Send details from your system to me and I'll incorporate them here.

Alternatively, if you don't see your system listed here, let me know your Email provider and the name and version of your email program (if you use one) and I'll try to help.

Trust all Hayling u3a emails in your Android or Apple phone or tablet

Unless you have installed a spam-checking app - you're looking in the wrong place. These devices don't do any spam checking. Instead they rely on your email provider to do spam checking for you. If you are seeing our emails in a junk folder on a standard Android or Apple iPad or Phone, they are being put there by your email provider.

If you have installed a spam-checking app, you'll need to use its documentation/help pages to find out how to trust our emails.

Trust all Hayling u3a emails in Microsoft Outlook

This is the email program provided with Microsoft Office - not Outlook Express (which is now replaced by Windows Live Mail that works in a similar way - see below).

All the versions of Outlook are very similar so these instructions will probably work with your version.

Right click any email you have received from Hayling u3a and:

  • Click 'Junk'
  • Click 'Never block sender's domain'
  • That's it
Trust all Hayling u3a emails in Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Mail replaced Outlook Express and works in a very similar way.

Right click any email you have received from Hayling u3a and:

  • Click 'Junk e-mail'
  • Click 'Add sender's domain to safe senders list'
  • Click OK
  • That's it
Trust all Hayling u3a emails received by Virgin

There's some information about creating new filter rules here.

Trust Hayling u3a emails received by BT/Yahoo

If you are a BT customer we ask you to use the procedures described below. They will help both you and other HIU3A members who are BT customers receive our emails.

The notes below assume you are using the BT Mail service operated by Yahoo. If you pick up your email a different way, you will need to log in to BT Mail to tell BT you want to trust our emails. We suggest two methods: adding contacts to your address book; and marking any HIU3A mail in your spam folder as 'not spam'. We describe both methods here...

BT Mail servicesHaving logged in to BT Mail, you will see icons for the available services in the top left corner. Unfortunately, BT doesn't provide a simple way to trust all HIU3A addresses. Instead you have to add them individually to your contacts list. To do that, click the contacts icon (the second one from the left). You will then see your contacts list.

BT2Click the 'New Contact button which appears just below the contacts icon at the top left of the page.

You will then be invited to add a contact using this form...

New contact form

Click the + sign to the right of the email box to cause a second email box to appear. Then fill in the contact form:

  • First name: Andy
  • Surname: Henderson
  • Email: andy@haylingu3a.org

Now click 'Save' to save those details.

Now click the 'New Contact' button again and add contacts for...

  • Hayling Chair chair@haylingu3a.org
  • Hayling Emailer emailer@haylingu3a.org
  • Hayling Editor editor@haylingu3a.org

That covers the large majority of emails you will get from our server. As you become aware of problems with other HIU3A addresses, please add them to your contacts list in the same way.

Folder listTo the left of your main email page you will see a list of folders starting with 'Inbox'. One of the folders is called 'Spam'. If you see a number in brackets next to your Spam folder it means that BT has detected what might be a spam message. Unfortunately, some emails you want to see might end up here, so you should check the folder from time to time by clicking the 'Spam' link.

If you see a message from us (or anyone else that shouldn't be there) click the message to open it then click the 'Not Spam' button in the toolbar immediately above the list of emails. Eventually, BT will get the idea that our messages aren't spam at all and will stop putting them in your spam folder. Even better, it will improve our reputation in BT and help prevent our messages going to the spam folder of other HIU3A members.

Thanks for your help.

Trust all Hayling u3a emails received in Hotmail/Outlook Live

Open your mail using link: https://outlook.live.com/owa/?path=/options/safesenderslist

You might need to complete a password check before you see a page showing options for your email account.

Click 'Email' in the left column.

Click 'Junk email' in the second column. You will then see a page on the right headed "Junk email".

Under 'Safe senders and domains' click '+ Add' and enter "haylingu3a.org".

Finally click the 'Save' button at the foot of the page. Hotmail/Outlook Live is now instructed to trust emails from Hayling u3a.

Trust Hayling u3a emails received in Mac OS X Mail

There's some information about creating new filter rules here.