Convert POP account to IMAP without losing messages

I have several POP accounts I'd like to turn into IMAP accounts so I can use them more effectively on multiple machines. Unfortunately if I just create new IMAP accounts and then delete or disable my old POP accounts Mail hides all the messages attached to those accounts. I'm assuming there's some trick to convince Mail to associate the old messages with the new account (which will have the same name, user name and password, but I don't know what it is. If anyone knows, or knows of a string where this question is answered I'd be very grateful for the pointer.

first, your email providers for those accounts have to offer IMAP access. very few providers provide both POP and IMAP access. gmail is one. but if an email provider does not provide IMAP access then there is nothing you can do.
but assuming they do provide IMAP access, create separate mailboxes in "on my mac" section and copy contents of inbox and sent folders for those accounts to those local folders. then delete POP accounts in mail preferences->accounts and recreate them as IMAP. then copy the messages you saved in the local folders in "on my mac" section" to the inbox and sent folders of the newly created IMAP accounts.

Similar Messages

  • Convert pop account to imap - lose sent messages and inbox messages

    I converted a pop account to imap and lost the ability to search through messages prior to the conversion. Luckily I backed up all the messages. How do I get the ability to search them back? I tried moving them into the appropriate folder in finder, but they don't show up in mail.

    i am having a similar problem - all of my sent messages disappeared from my mail program. i've located them in my home folder but can't figure out how to see them in my sent mailbox from the mail program ????

  • Converting POP account to IMAP

    I've upgraded an e-mail account from POP to IMAP.
    I understand that I can not change the setting of the mailbox in mail after it has been set up.
    So I have had to create a new IMAP account.
    A new "inbox" folder got created, but no new "sent" box.
    Now I want to get rid of the old pop account and copy the old mails in to the new mail boxes.
    But I have no new "sent" box to copy the old sent e-mails to!!!
    Any ideas why I didn't get a new "sent" box when I set up the IMAP account?
    Even better if anyone can suggest a better way to convert a POP account to IMAP.
    Thanks

    Remember that things might take a while to set up. Not too long and not immediately but somewhere inbetween.
    If these are .mac or .me.com accounts you might also notice that there is no IMAP Reminders (that is To Do and Notes) folder that is until you create a To Do or Reminder and then the folder will appear.
    What is quite neat is setting up multiple IMAP email accounts and managing those from within Mail. It's stunningly brilliant at what it does.
    Of course, if you Mobile Me stuff and use your account on other computers it is stunningly more brilliant still.
    POP is good for beginners but for real, gritty email stuff IMAP wins clearly as can be.
    For even more fun set up third party IMAP email addresses (one.com have a pleasant offer on the go) and these are resilient to ISP changes and avoid compromising one's .mac or .me.com account and provide relatively good fun

  • How can I convert a POP account to IMAP

    I have a POP account in the form [email protected], and I have just changed my hosting company from one that handles POP accounts only to one where accounts can be either POP or IMAP. The question is: how do I convert my existing POP account to IMAP? My main reason for wanting to do that is to keep the "Sent" folder synchronized so that Mail's sent item folder automatically gets stuff I send through web mail just like it does with my Dot Mac account.
    I tried removing the existing POP account; this causes any email associated with this account that has not been moved to an "On my Mac" folder to vanish. When I create an IMAP account, these mails don't reappear, even though the email address is the same. Recreating the POP account, though, brings these emails back to life.
    Of course, I can have both account definitions with the POP one having it's "include when automatically checking for new mail" checkbox unchecked, but that's really inelegant. Is there a way to convert the POP account into an IMAP account?
    Daniel

    Ernie Stamper wrote:
    If the Inbox for this account only is revealed, is there any triangle beside it?
    Ah, yes, I see! Silly me to be looking for Sent mail under "Sent"! Indeed, there's a disclosure triangle next to the account name under "Inbox", and wen you open it, it shows Drafts, Sent, spam, and Trash. The sent items are indeed there.
    Mind you, my Dot Mac accounts show up normally, i.e., their sent mail goes under "Sent". Wish all IMAP accounts did that. It sure isn't logical to show sent mail inside an inbox...
    But to answer your question: In addition to having the "Sent" folder for the account under "Inbox", I also have a folder for the account under "Sent". This folder disappears when I check the box to store messages on the server. There were emails in it (the ones I placed there myself). I have now moved those emails to the sent sub-folder under the account under "Inbox". Even with the "store on server" option UNchecked, the emails were instantly duplicated to the server, so that they were present both locally and remotely. I then checked the "store on server box"; this made the mailbox for the account under "Sent" vanish.
    To summarize: things appear to work normally now, except that I find it very inconvenient to have to look in two separate "Sent" folders to find emails I've written.
    Daniel

  • I am unable to see any POP3 or IMAP tab when I set up an account in my iphone 4S. Hence by default all my email accounts become IMAP and the messages are deleted from the server when I delete them from the iphone.

    I am unable to see any POP3 or IMAP tab when I set up an account in my iphone 4S. Hence by default all my email accounts become IMAP and the messages are deleted from the server when I delete them from the iphone.

    ok sorry everyone but i solved it myself but the solution is so nuts i've posted it here to help others who have the same problem.
    to setup a comcast imap account on your iphone:
    go to mail, contacts, etc in settings
    under accts, select add account
    select "other"
    new screen, choose "add mail account"
    now on the new acct screen you must enter your name, email address and password for your GMAIL acct ! (yes i said your gmail acct !, or some other acct with a NON comcast address).
    hit next
    then the acct verifies
    when verified a screen will open with all the acct settings for this acct AND @ the top of the screen are the 2 buttons > imap or POP
    select imap and THEN CHANGE ALL THE ACCOUNT information to the comcast account !
    then hit next and the account will take a couple minutes to verify but it will verify and now you have a comcast imap acct set up on your iphone.  The problem must be that when the iphone sends the initial verify acct info to comcast (if you enter that information first) the comcast server is simply not setup yet to signal the iphone that there is an imap option.

  • How to move/copy the pst POP account to IMAP account directly.

    Hi,
    We are using POP account for our email communication.Due to issues in POP account,we are planning to use IMAP for downloading the emails and also for synchronization with mobile devices.
    Please let me know how to copy the pst file of POP account to IMAP account.
    Is there any possibility available of copying /Moving PST pop account to IMAP account directly.
    Your support is highly appreciated.
    Regards
    Pradeep.R

    Hi Pradeep.R,
    We cannot move an existing POP3 account directly to an IMAP account. To do this, you should first remove your current POP3 account, then add your IMAP account into Outlook client. After this, transfer your current mails, which you downloaded
    via POP3 to your IMAP account.
    You should contact your email service provider for the correct IMAP account settings.
    To transfer your data, simply select the messages or folders in the existing .pst file, then drag and drop them into your current IMAP account.
    Hope this helps.
    Regards,
    Ethan Hua
    TechNet Community Support
    It's recommended to download and install
    Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT), which is developed by Microsoft Support teams. Once the tool is installed, you can run it at any time to scan for hundreds of known issues in Office
    programs.

  • Changed POP-account into IMAP: where are my old messages?

    Few weeks ago, I created an IMAP-account (just bougt a MacBook).
    Now it seems all POP-history has disappeared.
    I named the IMAP-account, the same accountname as the POP-account before. I didnot backup or archive.
    I checked ~/Library/Mail/, didnot find my old POP-folders, only new IMAP-folders.
    I found the attats in the trash, but not the emlx's that were in my POP-folders. Are they hidden somewhere? Any way to restore these emlx's?
    Any suggestions very welcome.
    Har ©

    Hi BDAqua,
    First, thanks for your quick reply. Had I been that fast...
    I looked at the data-rescue software you recommended. It states that you don't have to be technical, however data recovery seems not my cup of tea. And then, me and my family used this Mac for another three weeks since, before I found out my old messages had disappeared. So if these files are not waiting in some folder, I guess it's a mess.
    I think I'll take my loss of about one year of adresses, id's, passwords, confirmations etc. Luckely I found there was a lot of this saved in the attats and in keychain access as well.
    Your remark about another HD made me realise that I'll need one anyway to backup my IMAP-boxes and keep out of things like this in future.
    Thanks

  • Converting on mail.app POP account to IMAP? How can I do this?

    Hello,
    hope someone can help me. I just recently bought a domain name with all its software on GoDaddy. Unfortunaltely I found out, that the POP account offered, does not syncronize my mail between my iMac and iPhone, as Gmail or Yahoo do, these are IMAP accounts... Even though I tried through the mail.app assistent to sent up a new IMAP account, GoDaddy does not allow this. So I called them up, to know why, I would have to purchase an upgrade, to switch from POP to IMAP. My question: is there a way around this purchase? I have read, that many people leave their mail on the server, but would prefer my pop account to work as an IMAP , that is syncronize mail on my iMac and phone. I can not create a new IMAP account, while doing so GoDaddy server will tell me , that I can not connect to their server... What happens if I use the Yahoo server instead? Someone has a clue? Thank you in advanced for your responses. Hug, René

    You're trying to do this in the wrong place. This is a bit complicated but I'll try to walk you through it.
    First make sure you have a Google Apps account. This sill carry a charge, but I suspect it will be worth it. It is for me. Check here for details and to register: http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html.
    You will have to choose one of the ways to verify your domain ownership. More details here: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60216
    Next, you need to go to Godaddy.com. Log in to your account, then click "My Account" at the top of the page (or the equivalent in Spanish).
    Click "Domains", then the green "Launch" button to the right of the domain you want to use.
    Click the "DNS Zone File" tab
    Scroll down to the "MX (Mail Exchanger" section and Google's settings found here: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=174125
    Once it's all set up, you can set up your imap accounts using Google's settings here: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=105694

  • POP account to IMAP set up in mac mail

    Hello all
    I have a email account which is POP or IMAP accessable via the hosting provider.
    I have been using the .mac email and like the ability to sync emails in all places , thus I want to switch the one account I have set up as POP , to an IMAP account so I can have this on my business account.
    MY QUESTION:
    is it possible to now set up an IMAP account for this email account, without losing all of the emails I have downloaded , and then have them show up in the account once its set up as an IMAP account.
    I know I would have to Kill the old account to set up the new one?

    it certainly is possible to do that.
    the exact details depend on how your POP is set up. do you keep the messages on server after you download them? If yes, you don't have to do anything special. just create an IMAP account and you are set.
    If you don't keep messages on server after POP downloads then I would do the following.
    1. change the behavior of your POP to NOT delete messages from server upon downloads.
    2. set up IMAP and let it sync.
    It will be lacking old messages from your POP mailbox as they are not on the server. to change that you can copy all the messages from your POP inbox to your IMAP inbox. Just select them all in the POP inbox, right-click and use "copy to" menu.
    WARNING: if you do this, IMAP will sync up and put all those messages back on the server from your computer's mailbox. This can take a VERY long time if your inbox is big. Therefore, it's up to you if you really want to do this.
    After everything is working correctly you can delete the POP account if you wish.

  • How do you install gmail as POP account instead IMAP?

    It was suggested that I should convert Gmail account to a POP account to resolve the problem of deleting emails both from my MAC mail and gmail website account.

    Routing gmail through Mail.app:
    imap-http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=81379&topic=12814
    pop-http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13275&topic=12810
    More up-to-date advice here:
    http://www.macworld.com/article/2033842/make-mail-and-gmail-play-nice.html#tk.nl _mwhelp
    Note that you lose privacy when using Gmail (and Yahoo):
    Gmail and Yahoo both scan users' emails. They do algorithmic analysis of your email messages, targeting ads that relate to the content of your messages. Defenders point out that "they", are not people, but machines. And they argue that it is a harmless way of making advertising relevant to users and raising revenues.
    Others might say that whether a machine or a human is doing the work, the potential for a privacy breach is there.

  • How can I change my account on icloud without losing all my data and suppressing the former account. I just need to change the email address... TKS

    I changed my email address, how can I keep my icloud data without cancelling my former account...?

    Hey there Fonz111,
    It sounds like you have a new email address you would like to use to replace the email address you are currently using for your Apple ID, without losing any of the info you have in the account. You can update the email address with this article named:
    Apple ID: Changing your Apple ID
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5621
    To change your Apple ID, follow these steps:
    Go to My Apple ID (appleid.apple.com), click "Manage your Apple ID", and sign in.
    If you have two-step verification turned on, you'll be asked to send a verification code to the trusted device associated with your Apple ID. If you are unable to receive messages at your trusted device, follow the guidelines for what to do if you can't sign in with two-step verification.
    In the "Apple ID and Primary Email Address section," click Edit.
    Enter the email address you want to use, then click Save Changes. Apple will send a verification email to that address.
    Open the email from Apple, then click Verify Now in the email.
    When the My Apple ID page opens, sign in with your renamed Apple ID.
    If you have two-step verification turned on, you'll be asked to send a verification code to the trusted device associated with your Apple ID.
    After you see a message indicating that verification is complete, remember to update all of the stores and services that you use with your Apple ID.
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    All the very best,
    Sterling

  • Move folders in pop account to IMAP account in Mail

    Hi all,
    My wife has had her Gmail setup as a pop account in Mail for about 3 years. We would like to switch over to imap so that her iPhone and iPad and Macbook all stay synced. She has a lot of folders that she has created in Mail to store emails and we don't want to lose them.
    ANy ideas?
    Thanks!

    Yes.  The folders  On My Mac will not be effected.
    Only the inbox Sent and drafts. Basically starting fresh
    You can save your current inbox folder to something like old-inbox folder to On My Mac
    Same with sent folder. old-Sent folder.
    If you try to move the Sent folder to IMAP it will resend every single email again- Don't do it !
    http://www.macworld.com/article/1165600/how_to_convert_a_pop_email_account_to_im ap.html
    You can google fro more information to build your confidence. Read as much as you can.  Always have a good back-up encase you have to revert.  You do not want to risk losing any mail in the transition.

  • OOPS - POP account Deleted AND all local messages

    Well, NOW I find out that when you delete your POP account from your MAIL preference, all the messages from that account go bye-bye. Guess I am too used to the IBM world and MS Office that hangs on to your messages even if the mail server account goes away.
    SO, is there any magic pill I can give my Mac to recover/find all these messages?
    The server account is GONE and there are no messages on any server. All I have is the knowledge that there were 600 INBOX messages waiting for archiving reaching back to 2005 that are no longer visible from my mail box, and knowing that the computer took a good amount of time to eliminate that mail account when it got deleted.
    Any Doctors/pharmacists with a perscription out there? Thanks ! Jim K.

    If the messages are not on the server and you don’t have a backup (which you should have made before doing something like that), you may try to salvage as many deleted *.emlx files as possible with a data recovery tool such as Data Rescue II, TechTool Pro, or FileSalvage (the files to be recovered would be different in the case of Mail 1.x). Of these, the only one I know for sure that can currently recover deleted *.emlx files is FileSalvage. Stop using your computer right now if you want to try that, as anything you do with the computer may cause the deleted files to be overwritten.

  • Changing POP account to IMAP

    i just set up a POP account on mail, is it easy to make this an IMAP account, and if so how do i do this please?

    i tried this and it set up a new account for me. i clicked "create" account and when i looked under the mailboxes it appeared but had a a pie chart that filled up until almost complete then it stopped, plus it also has an exclamation mark next to it. is this because an account with the same name already exists?
    http://img.skitch.com/20100425-frkes74qk1uqw9x3t9twktydem.jpg

  • Remove POP account in Outlook but keep messages

    I am relatively new to Mac... I have an old email account in my Outlook that I want to remove. However, I want to keep all of the downloaded messages. When I go to delete the account though, it says all messages will also be deleted. Is there a way around this? How can I save the messages? The email account is no longer active, so I want to remove it as Outlook is always trying to receive messages and comes up with erorr messages...
    Thanks for any help!

    Go to menu, Mailbox > New Maibox
    Location, select On My Mac. Name: My Archive (example)
    Go to your Inbox (the source), Select All Messages.
    Go to Menu > Message > Copy to "My Archive"
    Repeat the same for other folders. e.g. Sent
    You can make sub-folders inside My Archive

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