E-mail synchronization between heterogeneous mail servers

• US 8,484,303 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2011
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: j2 Cloud Services, LLC (Consensus Cloud Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: J2 Global, Inc.
• Inventors: Newman, Robert D., Schleicher, Sanford
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THU HA T
• Application Number:
  US13/237,729
• Publication Number:
  US 20120023183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 658 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/248, 709/205, 709/207, 345/1.1, 715/733, 715/73, 715/751, 715/752
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A method or system for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, particularly for POP3 protocols. E-mail messages addressed to the user are received at an e-mail control at a local server, from an external e-mail server. The e-mail control stores each e-mail message in a consolidated e-mail storage at the local server. The e-mail control stores a message identifier for each e-mail message, in a message identifier storage at the local server. It is determined whether an e-mail message in the consolidated e-mail storage has been deleted from the external e-mail server, and if so, then the e-mail message is deleted from the consolidated e-mail storage.

Claims

1. A method for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, comprising:

(A) receiving, by an e-mail control, a plurality of e-mail messages addressed to the user, from an external e-mail server;

(B) storing, by the e-mail control, each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages, in a consolidated e-mail storage at a local server;

(C) storing, by the e-mail control, a message identifier for each e-mail message, in a message identifier storage at the local server;

(D) determining, by the e-mail control, whether an e-mail message in the consolidated e-mail storage has been deleted from the external e-mail server, and if so, then deleting the e-mail message from the consolidated e-mail storage of the local server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the e-mail message comprises:

the message identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the message identifier comprises:

a value of a header field of the e-mail message.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the header field is a message-id header field.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein deleting the e-mail message from the consolidated e-mail storage of the local e-mail server comprises:

comparing the message identifiers in the message identifier storage to a previously synchronized list of message identifiers; and

deleting from local e-mail server an e-mail message having a message identifier in the previously synchronized list and not in the message identifiers in message identifier storage.

6. A method for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, comprising:

(A) receiving, by an e-mail control at a local server, a plurality of e-mail messages addressed to the user, from an external e-mail server;

(B) storing, by the e-mail control, each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages, in a consolidated e-mail storage at a local server;

(C) storing, by the e-mail control, a message identifier for each e-mail message, in a message identifier storage at the local server;

(D) receiving, by the e-mail control, a collection of current message identifiers from the external server;

(E) reading, by the e-mail control, into a collection a list of previously synchronized message identifiers from the local server; and

(F) deleting, by the e-mail control, from the local server an e-mail message having a message identifier existing in the collection of previously synchronized message identifiers and not existing in the collection of current message identifiers.

7. A system for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, comprising:

an e-mail control, to receive a plurality of e-mail messages addressed to the user, from an external e-mail server;

storage, to be accessed by the e-mail control, and to store each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages;

message identifier storage, to be accessed by the e-mail control, and to store a message identifier for each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages;

the e-mail control to determine whether an e-mail message in the storage has been deleted from the external e-mail server, and if so, then deleting the e-mail message from the storage.

8. A system for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, comprising:

an e-mail control, to receive a plurality of e-mail messages addressed to the user, from an external e-mail server;

storage, to be accessed by the e-mail control, and to store each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages;

message identifier storage, to be accessed by the e-mail control, and to store a message identifier for each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages;

the email control to compare message identifiers in the message identifier storage to message identifiers in a previously synchronized list of message identifiers and to delete from the storage an e-mail message having a message identifier in the previously synchronized list of e-mail messages and not in the message identifier storage.

9. A system for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, comprising:

an e-mail control, to receive a plurality of e-mail messages addressed to the user, from an external e-mail server;

storage, to be accessed by the e-mail control, and to store each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages;

message identifier storage, to be accessed by the e-mail control, and to store a message identifier for each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages;

the email control to receive a collection of current message identifiers from the external server and a list of previously synchronized message identifiers from the message identifier storage, and to delete from the storage an e-mail message having a message identifier existing in the list of previously synchronized message identifiers and not existing in the collection of current message identifiers.