What They Don't Tell You About Nokia Messaging/Email

Nokia Messaging or Nokia Email is the email application that comes installed on many of the new Nokia phones, including N97. You can read about it here on the company website.

You can set up your email in just about any Nokia phone, even the old cheap ones. This used to go through a system that was linked to the Messaging folder, the same folder where you read your text messages, and the set-up process was rather complicated - pretty much the same as with setting up Outlook or Thunderbird - you need to get your email provider's port, know if it's a POP or IMAP inbox, etc. which I'm sure is frustrating when you've never done it before. That was the idea behind Nokia Email - it's a new, separate email client meant to make it simpler to set up your inbox on the phone.

Nokia Messaging asks you to create your email inbox when you first turn on your new phone. It guides you in it in a very friendly fashion. However, what it's doing is this:

When you set up your email password on the phone, the phone connects online, stores your password on the Nokia server, finds the settings for your email and sets it up for you.

You see the problem here? They store your password.

If that was the only problem, you could then just change your password, because it won't be updated on the server. The application on the phone would still work. The privacy issue would be solved.

However, another thing they don't tell you is that even though you set Nokia Messaging to only connect online manually - that is to say, that it won't automatically check on its own - it STILL WILL. It takes regular connections online to check your inbox status. There is nothing you can do to stop it. The data transferred is miniscule, so it won't hurt you if you have a contract with your operator that allows you to download a certain amount of data. But what if you have a contract that charges per connection rather than by data transferred? You'll be charged regularly, though you haven't knowingly used your phone's Internet.

This problem too can be solved by having a data transfer operator contract and by making sure that, whenever you go abroad, your operator there will have the same contract. Because, of course, whenever you use your SIM in another country, you'll be charged according to the system of whatever company is your operator's local partner, and THEY could be charging per connection.

You can bypass the system and set up your email in the old way. It'll still work - you just have to enter your email information manually.

Here's how:

Take out your phone's SIM or set it in Offline mode (through Profiles). Start setting up your email inbox on the phone through the phone's email wizard. The phone will ask you to take a connection online. You select "NO". Do not let it connect - whether through SIM or WLAN, makes no difference, we're not connecting online now. After this, you can enter all your email data as the wizard requests it. (This info will be available from your email provider's website, usually under the heading of "mobile email" or "email client" or "setting email up for Outlook".)

Your email info will not be stored on Nokia's server and if you ask it to only connect manually, it really will only connect manually. You've beat the system (or rather, have bypassed it and are using the old, non-evil email system).