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Daniel Slaughter

Developer, homebrewer, and geek of many things.

Gmail POP3 Checker

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Change Log

March 18, 2024
  • Fixed a trustedTypes policy preventing Chrome from properly loading the script.
October 31, 2022
  • Google moved a needed session variable, which broke the script. This has been updated.
September 20, 2021
  • Google rolled out a new implementation of the POP3 script causing the POP3 Checker to stop working for some individuals. This has been updated.
Feb 5, 2021
  • Fixed a bug caused by a parse error introduced in an update to Gmail.
Mar 30, 2020
  • Added a cache buster to the script so it would stop caching the settings pane.
Mar 4, 2020
  • Upgraded the server which caused compatability issues with the script. These compatability issues have been fixed.
April 26, 2018
  • Google rolled out a new Gmail design, which broke the script. Fixed. (Thanks Mike, Jeff)
October 20, 2017
  • Fixed a bug preventing links from being clicked. This was introduced by a security update from Chrome which affected some Gmail users.
June 30, 2016
  • The script now accounts for even more URLs that Gmail was using than the June 21, 2016 release.
June 21, 2016
  • The script now accounts for more URLs that Gmail was using for localization. (Thanks Mihran)
May 12, 2016
  • Gmail changed their source code which prevented the script from getting past "Loading...". This is now fixed.
September 4, 2015
  • Adding support for Paypal and Japanese users.
September 2, 2015
  • Cleaned up the panel's textual copy.
February 17, 2015
  • Fixed a bug where some Gmail URL paths had "/ca" in them, preventing the script from loading.
December 30, 2014
  • Changed the regular expression for @include so that Google Apps for Business URLs would be included. This however may cause the script to run multiple times, but only one instance will initialize like it did in the past.
December 26, 2014
  • Google implemented a cross-domain policy which affected all Chrome users using the script. I've updated the script to correctly account for their cross-domain policy. A manual reinstall of the script is required for anyone who currently has it downloaded.
July 21, 2014
  • Firefox 30.0 and Greasemonkey 2.0 require user scripts to request grant permissions for GM_xmlhttpRequest, which was preventing the script from loading. To get the update you will need to install the latest version from the project's page. This change should not affect Chrome or older versions of Firefox/Greasemonkey. This change has updated the client version to 7/21/2014, as you'll see from your "Grasemonkey > Manage User Scripts" window in Firefox.
July 7, 2014
  • Fixed a placement bug caused by an update to the Google header.
October 13, 2013
  • Updated the new Gmail location to be visible on all Gmail templates (people with dark templates couldn't see the countdown).
  • Fixed a performance issue which could cause unresponsive tabs in Chrome if the script ran for very long periods of time.
October 3, 2013
  • Quick update to account for the new Gmail layout without the black-bar. I may move the location of the countdown in a future release, but for now it should be usable again.
April 12, 2013
  • Applied a patch that was causing Chrome version 27.X+ to not load the script correctly. This was due to a recent announcement by Google of replacing WebKit, causing the XHR requests of the script to get wacky. Should be all fixed now, and backwards compatible with older version of Chrome and/or recent builds of Firefox. (Thanks Jonathan, Kyle)
February 15, 2012
  • Sadly Firefox wasn't playing nice with the new layout, so I've rolled it back to the old version where the POP3 script is displayed next to your name/email address in the top right corner. All cosmetic issues should be fixed now, but if not please let me know.
February 12, 2012
  • Fixed a bug I caused from yesterday's update which prevented Firefox users with the oldish version of Gmail from searching. Sorry! If you are still experiencing issues with this please do let me know.
February 11, 2012
  • Another update by Google reimplementing their black-bar (but of course a completely different set of code) broke the placement of the POP3 script. This bug has been fixed. Gmail now has about 6 different templates, and if your script isn't working properly please do let me know as it is possible it is broken with the new code.
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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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)
  • 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
  • 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
  • Script was released in a stable state using Gmail's Greasemonkey support