[Macworld]

Post your comments for How to convert a POP email account to IMAP here

[RickC]

I have a Comcast account that is POP and is available to download all my email to any computer I own, my iPhone, iPad, or online. The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded. I have my preferences on my main computer set to delete the mail on the server after one day. I change it to one week when I am traveling. Not sure what changing to IMAP does that's any better.

[kirkmc]

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

I have a Comcast account that is POP and is available to download all my email to any computer I own, my iPhone, iPad, or online. The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded. I have my preferences on my main computer set to delete the mail on the server after one day. I change it to one week when I am traveling. Not sure what changing to IMAP does that's any better.

It lets you have any number of folders synced across devices, including drafts, sent mail, and any folders you choose to put on the server.

[willmont]

As an Apple Consultant, I have made this switch for numerous customers. Some of the huge advantages of IMAP over POP go beyond just having messages on all the devices. With IMAP, you only have to work with any email message one time. If you read an email message on your IMAP account on your iPhone, it will show up as read on your iPad and your Mac. With POP, you would see that same message as unread on all of the devices even after it has been read on one or more device. The same thing is true for deleting a message; delete it on one device and it is deleted from all devices. You also have the advantage of creating folders for your IMAP account one time and one time only. Those folders will also be available on your other devices!

A word of caution! Transferring messages from the POP account on your computer to your IMAP account can take a loooong time. It took well over 10 hours for one client who had 20,000+ messages! Expect to see some errors, but be patient and you will be thrilled to move to IMAP.

[willmont]

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

I have a Comcast account that is POP and is available to download all my email to any computer I own, my iPhone, iPad, or online. The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded. I have my preferences on my main computer set to delete the mail on the server after one day. I change it to one week when I am traveling. Not sure what changing to IMAP does that's any better.

When you get back from your time traveling, you have to mark every message on your home computer as 'read' that you already read on your other device, right? IMAP fixes that. Read a message on one device and it is marked as 'read' on all devices.

[marcbuk]

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded.

Precisely - the article has it wrong. There's no problem with POP on multiple devices – in fact it's much easier to manage than IMAP, in my experience.

[redgeminipa]

I'd like to know how to fix the issue with me.com email that it still shows up as unread (red badge on the Mail icon) until you manually check for new messages again. It's rather annoying.

Neither my AOL, Yahoo or Gmail accounts have this issue. Is this just a Push Account issue, since it doesn't periodically check with the server?

[Strawtag]

I have internet access through AT&T with an assigned POP service from Yahoo with an email address for the sbcglobal.net domain. I requested a change from POP to IMAP from AT&T support, and was told, "We cannot switch the services type from POP to IMAP." That's disappointing, but I was pretty sure I had tried requesting that previously as well.

[kirkmc]

marcbuk, on 06 March 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded.

Precisely - the article has it wrong. There's no problem with POP on multiple devices – in fact it's much easier to manage than IMAP, in my experience.

That's certainly true, but if you read Willmont's comments, you'll see why I didn't mention that in the article. While that posibility exists, it can be intensely confusing if you have mulitple devices.

[MichelleEris]

willmont, on 06 March 2012 - 06:43 AM, said:

As an Apple Consultant, I have made this switch for numerous customers. Some of the huge advantages of IMAP over POP go beyond just having messages on all the devices. With IMAP, you only have to work with any email message one time. If you read an email message on your IMAP account on your iPhone, it will show up as read on your iPad and your Mac. With POP, you would see that same message as unread on all of the devices even after it has been read on one or more device. The same thing is true for deleting a message; delete it on one device and it is deleted from all devices. You also have the advantage of creating folders for your IMAP account one time and one time only. Those folders will also be available on your other devices!

A word of caution! Transferring messages from the POP account on your computer to your IMAP account can take a loooong time. It took well over 10 hours for one client who had 20,000+ messages! Expect to see some errors, but be patient and you will be thrilled to move to IMAP.

But what if I want to delete it from one device, but retain it on another device?

[MichelleEris]

willmont, on 06 March 2012 - 06:46 AM, said:

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

I have a Comcast account that is POP and is available to download all my email to any computer I own, my iPhone, iPad, or online. The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded. I have my preferences on my main computer set to delete the mail on the server after one day. I change it to one week when I am traveling. Not sure what changing to IMAP does that's any better.

When you get back from your time traveling, you have to mark every message on your home computer as 'read' that you already read on your other device, right? IMAP fixes that. Read a message on one device and it is marked as 'read' on all devices.

Marking them as read (or deleting them) is trivial. Click, shift-click, mark as read (or delete key).

[MichelleEris]

kirkmc, on 06 March 2012 - 07:54 AM, said:

marcbuk, on 06 March 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded.

Precisely - the article has it wrong. There's no problem with POP on multiple devices – in fact it's much easier to manage than IMAP, in my experience.

That's certainly true, but if you read Willmont's comments, you'll see why I didn't mention that in the article. While that posibility exists, it can be intensely confusing if you have mulitple devices.

It may be confusing to some, but there are many of us who are not confused by it at all.

[BrianJojade]

RickC, on 06 March 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

I have a Comcast account that is POP and is available to download all my email to any computer I own, my iPhone, iPad, or online. The solution is not to delete the mail on the server after it is downloaded. I have my preferences on my main computer set to delete the mail on the server after one day. I change it to one week when I am traveling. Not sure what changing to IMAP does that's any better.

IMAP keeps all of your devices in sync all the time. With POP, if you check your mail on 3 devices, you have to delete unwanted messages on all 3 devices. Read a message on one device with IMAP and it shows as read on all of the other devices.

Now, sometimes, you want a combination. Eg, on your phone, maybe you want to just see messages as they come in, but don't want them marked as read on your computer. In that case, setting up POP on the phone might make sense. Just make sure it is set to not delete messages off the server.

[marcbuk]

kirkmc, on 06 March 2012 - 07:54 AM, said:

That's certainly true, but if you read Willmont's comments, you'll see why I didn't mention that in the article. While that posibility exists, it can be intensely confusing if you have mulitple devices.

Well, it's more confusing to indicate that POP can't do it in my view. In fact, POP on multiple devices is not confusing at all and the synching advantages of IMAP are not necessarily useful, or can be replicated. For example, if I trash and empty trash on one POP client I can set it to delete the messages from the server. I'm not bothered about seeing which messages I've read. Also, it's straightforward to merge multiple POP accounts in one inbox. I use a Mac Mini, Macbook Pro and an Android mobile, all filtering the same mail from four accounts. The only setting I apply is to remove messages from the servers after one month to stop a huge remote archive building up and busting storage limits.

I know IMAP is more elegant - but I've found it much more difficult to set up when I've tried it. Which is why I've stayed with POP. I travel in Europe a lot too and know I can rely on POP servers as well.