Change the mail account from POP to IMAP

Hi All,
I have been looking around on how to switch a 10 years old email account from POP to IMAP for quite a while without success.
I've noticed that if I delete a POP account all emails are deleted, and despite all the backups I'm concerned even creating a new IMAP account and move back into all the emails.
What do you suggest?
If I move all the emails into a local folder, are these email "disconnected" from the POP account so would I be able to delete the POP account without incur in a mass mail deletion?
Thanks
Andrea

Having Mail automatically change account type from, say, POP3 to IMAP is not going to happen, in my opinion. With it would come great risk of losing existing data between the cracks, and I don't think Apple of other developers will do that. There would be no one size fits all in the IMAP server world, and communication to change On My Mac mailboxes to folders residing on the server needs forethought.
Looking at it another way, it would be like moving your bank account from one bank to the other, via only web access.
The headaches are not the product of Mail or other email clients, but rather understanding the difference between POP and IMAP, and that many people do not understand those differences is demonstrated every day on this forum.
Ernie

Similar Messages

  • Is there a way to change a Mail account from POP to IMAP?

    Greetings,
    Is there a way to change a Mail account from POP to IMAP so as not to have to create a new account?
    Thanks

    GMail offers both without you have to pick one or the other? If so, and changing the server doesn't work then you will need to re-establish the account in Mail. Don't delete the old account (or you will lose any downloaded messages) - there's no reason why you shouldn't have both available. You can move the messages from the POP account to another folder and then delete it.

  • Converting Mac Mail Accounts from POP to IMAP?

    I'm just discovering IMAP for keeping my email synced. Is it possible to convert my 5 Mac Mail accounts from POP to IMAP or do I really have to start 5 new accounts & then deal with importing all that email to the new ones somehow? I've tried experimenting with changing the incoming mail server manually form pop.gmail.com to imap.gmail.com to no avail. Any suggestions/instructs are appreciated. Also, seems that, at least for gmail, the recommended Apple Mail client pref settings aren't current with Mail 3.5. Any guide to where mailbox behaviors should be set to work correctly for gmail & other mail servers (I'm using gmail, comcast, godddy and a private mail server) would be great!

    first you have to make sure that the email providers for those accounts offer IMAP. if they don't you can't do anything. gmail does as you mentioned but most email providers only offer one type of access. if an email provider supports IMAP then you have to create a new account for IMAP for the email address. there is no way to change the type of an existing account. once you do set it up it will sync with the server so if your mail was kept on server (that's the default for gmail POP I think) you don't have to do anything. It will sync automatically. If you remove POP mail from server (default for most POP providers) then you'll have to move your messages from the existing local POP mailbox to the imap mailbox. It will sync with the server and upload all those emails back to the server. That might take a long time and a lot of bandwidth if you have a lot of stuff so it's up to you if you want to do this. You can simply move that mail to a local mailbox in "on my mac" section. after your imap account is set and has all the mail you need, you can delete the POP account.
    Lastly see this link for gmail imap setup (also check out the link to recommended client settings)
    http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=81379&topic=12814

  • 4.2.1 changed my mail type from POP to IMAP. How to fix?

    Since upgrade, Mail says my Yahoo account is an IMAP account and can't get my mail. My other POP account works fine. How do I tell my iPhone to make the account a POP account again?

    If the email is still stored on the Server, it you don't need to. However, that is normally not how POP works.
    Make new Mailboxes in the On My Mac section and move the emails from the POP folders into those.
    That will move all your email out of the POP account. You can move it to the new IMAP account after you set it up, if you want.

  • HT201320 How do I change an iphone email account from POP to IMAP

    I just open an email acoutn with Blue host with an IMAP setting.  Now I am trying to put the new email and servers on my Iphone3.  All was going well till the POP acccount problem came up at the end. How do I change an iphone email account from POP to IMAP? or do I?
    Please go step by step if possible.   Thank you,
    Irene
    PS   If I cannot use Imap setting on my Iphone, how do I return the settings to the original for POP?

    Hello Willon63,
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    For more information, take a look at:
    iOS: Troubleshooting Mail
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3899
    Delete the affected email account from your device.
    Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
    Choose the affected email account, then tap Delete Account.
    Add your account again.
    Have a nice day,
    Mario

  • How do I Change my cox incoming mail server from pop to imap

    I Have a macbook pro with OS X Yosemite.  I want to change the incoming cox mail server from pop to imap.  I did it on my ipad and iphone but I can't do it on the mac pro.  Do I need to delete the existing account and do it as a new account or can I edit the server?

    It depends on what Cox has set up. Usually, you need to create a new account using IMAP. You don't want to delete the POP accounts because all your old mail is stored on your computer. You'll want to import that using Mail's Import option.

  • HT1689 On my ipad, how do i change the store account from one country to another

    I keep getting a message to change the store account, sign out, then sign in from another store.

    Go to the App Store, Tap on the Featured tab. Swipe to the bottom of the screen and tap on your ID. Then tap View Apple ID. Enter your password. Go to Country/Region, and change the store in there.

  • Is there anyway I can change the icloud account from someone else's account to my iCloud account on my iPod5?

    Is there anyway I can change the iCloud account On my iPod5 from someone else's iCloud account to my iCloud account?

    As I stated earlier:
    You will need the Apple ID and password of the previous owner or the device will be locked and cannot be used.
    Find My iPhone Activation Lock

  • Migrating gmail account from POP to IMAP in Apple Mail - avoid duplicates?

    I have a massive gmail account full of three years or more of messages. On OS X Mail I have a POP account that I have been using since the beginning, and I have always left a copy of messages on the gmail server, so it has three years worth on there.
    So my question is, I want to disable the POP account and add an IMAP account for gmail, but how can I do this without the IMAP downloading allllll of my messages over again? Because I literally do not want to have TWO copies of each message from the past three years... oh heck no.
    There has to be a solution to this. I don't know if the new version of Mail is smart enough to see that a copy of a message already exists, and not download it again -- somehow I doubt it's that smart. Is there a way on gmail to mark all of the mail that's on the server currently as being "not-for-download"?
    I'm being forced into this because for whatever reason, one of my two Macs decided it's not going to download POP messages that the other one has already downloaded, even though the messages are still on the server!!

    I found this great set of mail AppleScripts:
    http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/Mail_Scripts.html
    It includes one script to delete duplicate messages. So if we can't find a way to do this right, then I'll just download all the duplicates then delete them. Of course I don't want to actually do that, lets call this the nuclear option.
    So can anyone think of a way to make an IMAP account for my gmail without it downloading all the messages again that I have already downloaded?

  • Changing Mail Account from POP3 to IMAP

    I have to change hosts for my domain and primary e-mail address, and as long as I need to recreate my account, I’d like to change it from POP3 to IMAP. How would I change the account settings in Mail so that all my previous e-mails aren’t deleted when I change protocols? Thanks.

    As I don't know whether what you want to do is possible or not, I would rather create a new account with the new settings and copy the emails from the old one to the new one (I think this will keep email dates correct). Then, after verifying that the new one works OK, I would delete the old one.

  • Change Account from POP to IMAP

    Is this possible? I tried to in Mail -> Accounts but does not appear to be possible.

    you can not change the type of an existing account. you'll have to make a new account. also, your email provider has to provide support for IMAP. if it doesn't, you can't do it at all.

  • How can I change the default account from which I send mail

    Currently I have 2 email addresses/accounts. When I send an email, the older address appears as the "from" address, if I don't remember to change to the newer one. How can I make the newer address appear as the default "from" address?

    # Press '''Alt''' or '''F10''' to see the menu bar
    # Click on the '''Tools''' >> '''Account Settings'''
    # At left, select the second account
    # At the bottom left, click on the '''Account Actions''' button, then select '''Set as default'''

  • 10.5.8 Mac Mail switch from POP to IMAP

    I have Mac Mail 3.6 on a 10.5.8 and was originally set up as a POP account pop.telus.net - so now trying to change to imap.telus.net and the outgoing mail was mail.telus.net and trying to switch to smtp.telus.net.  Was on the phone for 2 hours with telus and now I can't get any emails at all and the only thing I can see that they were able to change was the outgoing server on my existing POP account to smtp.telus.net and now it is offline.  And I can't send or receive emails at all.  They want me to uninstall mac mail - but everything I search is telling me I have to have the original DVD to re-install..... PROBLEM is that everything was installed on the computer before I even got it from the apple.com   SO now what do I do?   I know I have to upgrade to 10.6.8 Snow Leopard before I can get OS X Mavericks - so wondering in what order should all this be done.

    Not all email servers are equal. Some are best with POP.  There are other free accounts you can get that will work great with IMAP. Once you get to Snow Leopard you can get a free iCloud email account but contacts and calendars won't sync in Snow Leopard. Gmail might be a better option until you move to Mavericks.
    You can try this to reset Mail to defaults.
    Quit Mail
    Go to you User's Library and find the Mail folder.
    Name it MailXX
    Next in the User's Library, go to Preferences folder.
    Drag the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop.
    Log out under the Apple in the Menu bar.
    Log in
    Open Mail
    You can put the original files back if the new Mail does not work correctly.
    While your computer might meet the requirements, also check your applications for Mavericks compatibility here:  http://roaringapps.com/  AppleWorks and Microsoft Office 2004 are two that do not work on Lion and higher.
    How much RAM? Apple says 2GB RAM but your computer will be slooooow. Moving to Snow Leopard and sticking there might be the best option for your 2009 Mac.

  • How can I change the ICloud account from my partner to me

    My business partner set up an ICloud account for his iPhone on my PC to show me how great it was.  Now I can't change it to my account.  I've tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it but his account is still there.  Any suggestions? Thanks.

    I just figured it out.  Just signed him out then signed back in with with my account.

  • How do I sync my mail accounts from my macbook using the mavericks os to my new iphone 5

    recently I had to get a new iphone 5, so I backed up the old one with my macbook pro that is using the mavericks os. After restoring the new phone from the back up I noticed that the mail accounts from my macbook had not synced as they used to automatically prior to installing mavericks that seems to force you to sync everything pretty much through icloud. Is there any simple way to do this clone my mail accounts to my new iphone 5 from my macbook.

    Hi
    You will probably have to add the mail accounts yourself onto the iphone see here:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4810
    https://www.apple.com/uk/support/iphone/mail/
    Hope this helps

Maybe you are looking for