Question:

Deskpro is configured to connect to a mailbox using POP3. There are two emails which appear to be "stuck" - they remain in the POP inbox, and aren't removed or processed by Deskpro. The emails look OK in Outlook. Other emails are being processed fine. What's going on?

Answer:

POP3 is a very simple protocol with no concept of marking an email as 'read'. By default, email programs using POP3 will often download and delete any emails they see on the server, leading to a first-come, first-served situation: if two programs access the same mailbox, whichever one downloads the message first will see it, but the other won't.

In the case above, Outlook (or other email software) has downloaded and deleted the emails from the server, so Deskpro can't see them. They are only visible in Outlook, and looking at the extended Deskpro log will show that there are no emails in the mailbox.

To avoid this problem, make sure that any email software that connects to a POP3 email account shared with Deskpro is set to leave all messages on the server.