Converting to imap from pop

My mail accounts have been set up as pop accounts forever, and in downloading the mail I have set up files organizing over a decade-worth of email. These folders are in Apple Mail. In converting to imap, will this folder structure be overwritten by the folder structure on the server hosting my email account? If so, is there any way to save these emails and their organization so that I can retrieve past correspondence as needed?

Look in the side bar of mail. If the folders are listed under "On my Mac" you'r good to go. If they are listed elsewhere, create new folder "on my Mac"  and drag all the other folders to the new folder. After the mail has moved, you can safely delete the POP account and re-create it as an IMAP account.

Similar Messages

  • Converting my Mail from POP to IMAP

    I am considering converting my ISP email account in Apple Mail from POP to IMAP. I had never given this much (any) thought until I recently got an iPhone and noticed that the email account that it setup for my ISP email (Charter) was an IMAP one. This has created a little bit of a conflict and has sometimes resulted in my inbox or get mail on my desktop Apple Mail being "locked up" for a while when I have just previously read the mail on my iPhone. (I get the message on my iMac that my ISP email is currently in use by another mail client). I had never run into this problem before and I've read that it does happen and happens more often when you have both POP and IMAP clients trying to access the same mail server.
    One question is do I just go into the accounts settings on Mail on my iMac and change the incoming and outgoing servers to the appropriated IMAP ones? Or should I create a whole new account in Mail and use the IMAP settings from the start? What will happen to the folders and subfolders I already have in my Mail program? Going forward with IMAP, will I be able to download the emails from the server like I have always done and categorize them into folders using Mail?
    This is all kind of confusing right now. Thanks.
    Steve M.

    You're welcome.
    Is there any harm in leaving my desktop Mail as is (POP account) and just realizing that I may experience an occasional "lock out"?
    There is no harm with doing so, but I'm not sure why you would want to.
    How do I release the email account from my iPhone?
    There is no option for this.
    I already have my data settings on the iPhone to "fetch" every hour--not to push. But does this apply to the IMAP account on the iPhone?
    Push access for received messages applies to an email account that supports Push access. The following email accounts support Push access for received messages:
    MobileMe
    Exchange
    A Yahoo account created with the Yahoo account preset.
    "If" I decided to convert my desktop Mail account to IMAP, could I not just "add" the new account? Would I necessarily have to delete the POP account?
    You don't have to delete the POP account, but you would want to make it inactive or disable the account with the Mail app - Mail > Settings > Accounts > Select the Account > Under the Advanced tab for the account settings deselect Enable this account.
    If you want access to the locally stored messages in the POP account's Inbox and Sent mailbox with the iPhone's Mail app, you want want to copy the messages to a server stored mailbox or mailboxes after creating the account as an IMAP account.
    Can I setup the account as POP on my iPhone and just keep it all POP? Or is this dependent on Charter's policies?
    This depends on Charter, but I don't see why you wouldn't be able to access the account as a POP account with the iPhone's Mail app as well, but this will not get rid of the "locked out" problem on occasion.
    A POP account is from the early dark ages of email account access with an email client on a computer when the overwhelming majority at the time had access to a single computer only - before there were laptops and laptops became mainstream, and before there were handheld cell phones much less cell phones in the smart phone category. Until the iPhone, phones in the smart phone category were primarily targeted and sold to the business/enterprise market, not to the consumer market. The iPhone changed all that - just look at all the copies and different phones in the smart phone category that surfaced after the original
    Although it is possible to access a POP account with more than one email client, a POP account is designed to be accessed with a single email client only and includes a number of limitations that are not a problem with an IMAP account, which is specifically designed to be accessed with more than one email client.
    There is no "locked out" problem with an IMAP account. You can store the account's Drafts, Sent, Trash, and Junk mailboxes on the server with the Mail app on your Mac, and the account's Drafts, Sent, and Trash mailboxes on the server with the iPhone's Mail app. The account's Junk mailbox stored on the server with the Mail app on your Mac will be available automatically when accessing the account with the iPhone's Mail app along with all other server stored mailboxes created for the account with the Mail app on your Mac or via webmail access for the account using a browser. You can transfer received and sent messages to additional server stored mailboxes by category with the Mail app on your Mac and with the iPhone's Mail app which will be reflected automatically with each email client. All server stored mailboxes are kept synchronized with the server automatically with each email client used to access the account. Sent a message with the iPhone's Mail app and the message will be available in the account's Sent mailbox with the Mail app on your Mac automatically and vice-versa. Read a new message with the Mail app on your Mac and the message will be marked as read automatically when accessing the account's Inbox mailbox with the Mail app on your Mac and vice-versa. Transfer a received message to a user created server stored mailbox with iPhone's Mail app and the message will be available in that server stored mailbox automatically when accessing the server stored mailbox with the Mail app on your Mac and vice-versa.
    I keep the Mail app on my Mac launched and running 24/7 checking my IMAP account for new messages. I have the account's Junk mailbox stored on the server with the Mail app on my Mac, which is available automatically when accessing the account with the iPhone's Mail app and the same with my iPad 2. Any received message that is marked as junk and moved to the account's Junk mailbox stored on the server with the Mail app on my Mac is reflected automatically with the account's Inbox mailbox and Junk mailbox with the iPhone's Mail app and with the iPad's Mail app. The junk mail filter with the Mail app on my Mac is serving as the junk mail filter for the account with my iPhone and iPad as well - remotely since all server stored mailboxes with an IMAP account are kept synchronized with the server with each email client used to access the account.
    NONE of this is available with a POP account.
    If you have the option to access your email account as an IMAP account and you access the account with an email client on more than one computer or device, to me it is a no-brainer which way to go - IMAP, which is specially designed for this.

  • Should I change to IMAP from POP?

    Hi all,
    I have just purchased an older iMac which will now be my Mac at work. I will be keeping the Powerbook at home and want to be able to check the same mail boxes from there.
    Is it best to change to IMAP accounts or keep them as POP?
    I have had all my email accounts (5 addresses) POP for the last 5 years, but I still go into the ISP server and delete as needed. Now that I have a second machine I see it starting to get difficult to manage it manually.
    I am a graphic designer so do get largish attachments often.
    What is the best way I should be managing my accounts now that I have a home and work machine that I want to be able to read and write from? I have given it a go to read about POP or IMAP but haven't found a good resource that explains what would suite me best.
    Thanks for any help.
    Petter.

    The easiest way to manage email accounts across multiple computers or locations is to use IMAP. Here's a good site to start learning about the differences between POP and IMAP and the advantages of the latter.

  • Moving mail users to IMAP from POP. Issues with sent messages disappearing

    Our mail server has been working well for several years, running currently on Mac OX 10.4.10 (Xserve G5). All user accounts have always been setup for pop and imap in WGM but we have just recently started to move client settings to IMAP. No changes to the mail settings in server admin except opening the firewall to include port 993 for imap ssl.
    The issue is that all users appear to loose the sent mail records when using the apple mail apps. After a message has been sent, the message record stays in the Apple generated sent box for that account and then disappears (presumably after syncing with the server).
    The mail app "account" settings shows that sent messages are to be stored on the server and never to be deleted (in mailbox behavior).
    If you do a "get info" on the mailbox,sent messages don't show on the server either under "Sent". I also created an additional mailbox "Sent Messages" to be used as sent mailbox location. mailbox shows up on the server, but no mail is added when sent from the apple mail app.
    Now, I would have assumed this to be an issue of the client app, but the behavior is consistent across several machines and also on new mail app configurations.
    When using Entourage with the same account however, the server works as anticipated and all sent messages are stored on the server (in the "Sent Messages" box). Any Entourage sent messages also show up in the "Sent Messages"mail box of the apple mail apps.
    When using iphones, the behavior is somewhat unclear. The iphone mail settings (under advanced) show the "server" selected ("Sent Messages") for sent mail, yet the actual iphone mail app lists that folder as just "Sent". When sending messages, that mailbox shows the Entourage sent messages and iphone sent messages, but the iphone messages never appear on the server.
    This only happens on sent messages; inbox, drafts, deleted and junk mail boxes work perfect. This also happen on any imap client account I setup, not just a specific one.
    Any suggestions? Any setting I am overlooking? Using Entourage for all users is not an option...
    Thanks for any help...

    Please see my post and how it was resolved:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1181356&tstart=0
    When I had that issue, I tried using Apple Mail app and noticed that Sent Mails are getting lost. Try sending an email using WebMail. You might see similar "Permission Denied" error. Try restarting the server and see if the issue still exists.

  • Switching from POP to IMAP mail without losing downloaded POP mail (??)

    I want to switch from POP mail to IMAP on two different business email accounts (both support IMAP) and a Gmail account, so I'll have all my desktop mail folders on my iPhone (not just the inbox stuff).
    I'm concerned about losing my downloaded POP mail in the process.
    Some time ago, I switched briefly to IMAP on one of my biz email accounts (as part of a web collaboration app), and lost lots of mail in the process.
    If someone could summarize the steps to do this I'd be quite appreciative!
    Paul / Los Angeles, Calif.

    Hi,
    Last month I have switched to IMAP from POP for several of my email accounts. I don't think it is possible to switch to IMAP from POP without deleting the account. I didn't find anything in the preferences. I usually don't erase emails in the server, so I didn't have any problem getting all my mails back.
    In case you have erased emails on the server but not in your computer, it is a good idea to backup any of your mailboxes (Using "Archive Mailbox..." in "Mailbox" menu) that you feel important.

  • Googlemail folders (IMAP vs POP Which is the lesser of the two evils)

    I just changed my googlemail account to IMAP from POP as I was sick of rereading emails on my iphone that I had already read on my laptop. Now emails appear twice, in 'Inbox' and also in the googlemail 'All Mail' folder. I've tried the 'mailbox' / 'use this mailbox for' trick but it obviously doesn't work for the 'all mail' one.
    I just want for my Apple mail folders to appear as they did when it was set up through POP but for it to unmark the messages I've read on other devices/online and vice vercer.
    I'm tearing my hair out and ready to just revert to reading all emails online, at least then I won't have to read them twice. Any help comes much appreciated

    Hello Jonny!
    As I understand the matter, Google IMAP keeps messages in the "All Mail" folder and just tags labels like "Inbox" or "From Uncle Al". This means that for every message there inevitably will appear a duplicate in the "All Mail" folder in Apple Mail.
    If you already have read all messages and the unread counter next to the "All Mail" folder still says "7" then select "Mailbox" > "Sync all accounts" in Mail.app.
    One more addition: if you don't like "Drafts" and "Spam" to be sub-entries to the white GoogleMail folder in the sidebar, you can move them by selecting each in turn and setting "Mailbox" > "Use this mailbox for".
    Hope that clears up the matter.
    You might also be interested in a previous post of mine concerning the interworking of [Apple Mail and Gmail IMAP|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1747527] (click the link).
    floba
    (MN585)
    Message was edited by: floba

  • 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

  • How do I convert yahoo email on iPhone FROM IMAP TO POP?

    I have Yahoo Mail Plus. When I first got my iPhone 4, I set it up so my yahoo email was accessible on my phone without my doing anything. I only check the email from two devices: my desktop via the internet, and my iPhone. I'm pretty sure the email set up on my phone is an IMAP protocol, because when I delete an email from one device, it deletes it on the other device.
    I actually want to change it so that when I delete an email on my phone, it DOESN'T delete it from the Yahoo server. I think that's the POP protocol. I realize setting it up as POP will require that I delete the emails multiple places. I can live with that. What I don't currently like is that all of the emails I've saved in my Yahoo account, in multiple folders, are now also sitting on my iPhone. It's a risk exposure I'd like to eliminate. My iPhone password is a start, but I'd feel better if I could purge old emails off my iPhone. Right now, if I delete the various emails and folders from my phone, it's my understanding they'll also be gone from my Yahoo internet account. I don't want that.
    I've read various posts saying I should delete my Yahoo email account on my iPhone and then set it up as a new account and select POP.
    1. Is that the only way to change from IMAP to POP?
    2. If I delete Yahoo mail on my iPhone, what will happen to my stored emails on Yahoo? Will they be saved or deleted?
    3. Is there another solution?
    4. Any other advice?
    Thanks for any help. And if I've skewered any terms here, forgive me. Sometimes dealing with this stuff is like learning another language.  Cindy

    First off, you are correct in the assumption that emails are sitting on your iPhone. You should, however have the option to set how much to sync, as well as what folders to sync to determine what is visible. The only setting to change that is to set a passcode on the phone.
    Also, deleting the emails and folders from the phone will result in them being deleted from the server, this is how IMAP works.
    To answer your other quesetions:
    1. That would have to be answered by Yahoo, since the server would have to be different. An IMAP server acts differently than POP.
    2. Deleting will delete everything everywhere.
    3. The only other solution I can think of is as I stated earlier is if there is a setting for days to sync in IMAP. I'm not sure of this since I do not use an IMAP account. I know that Exchange behaves in this way.
    4. If this does not work as you want after talking ot Yahoo, then maybe selecting a POP email provider and forwarding the Yahoo mail to that and picking up the POP mail on the iPhone.
    I think that Yahoo will give you information that you will need to start your search for answers.

  • Moving user from POP to IMAP

    Hello
    I'm switching all of my mail users from POP to IMAP. In most cases, I set up their IMAP setting in there mail client. Then I drag there POP messages (stored on their local machines) to the IMAP account. That has worked for most users. I have three users with a lot of local mail messages - about 10 gb. When I try to drag the mail folder over in Apple Mail, it starts to copy them. After a while, it just stops. The messages never get over to the IMAP server. (Their names are on the door, so I can't tell them to trim down their messages.)
    My next thought was to convert the messages from Mail.app, copy them into the mailstore on the IMAP server, then reconstruct the mailbox. I have an app, Emailchemy, that converts Mail.app to following formats:
    RFC-2822 mailboxes ("mbox" format or "UNIX-style")
    Folders of individual RFC-2822 email files (.txt or .eml files)
    Comma-separated value files (.csv files)
    Maildir (qmail)
    Maildir++ (Courier IMAP)
    In a test account, I'v tried converting a single message to RFC-2822 format. After I reconstruct the mailbox, I see the header info, but the body of the message is blank.
    Is there something that I am missing? Is there a better way to move those messages.
    Thanks,
    Henry
    MacBook Pro 2.0 GHz 1 GB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    I've switched many users from Eudora - pop and Mail - pop to imap.
    it's very easy. - just change the client setting.
    we chose Thunderbird because it worked the same on both PC and MAC, and came with just enough options to make everyone happy.
    if all the users are set to either pop/imap combo then only the clients have to make any significant changes.
    having the pop option is great if you want your users to flush their mailbox and keep a local copy while you do updates.
    I frown upon alternate imap boxes other than defaults. if the user needs more mailboxes they can create them on their local machine. That way we don't have to deal with long reconstructs for an individual user. -lots of small files in those maildirs.

  • HT201320 I want to set up a POP3 email account but in all the help I have found so far I should get the option to choose IMAP or POP.  This doesn't appear and I need POP3 because I don't want anything deleted from the mail server.  I have an iPhone 5s and

    How do I set up a POP3 email account on my iPhone5s, using iOS 7.1.1.  All the help I have found tells me to select IMAP or POP but I am not given the choice.  I need to be able to set 'Don't delete from mail server' which can't be done in IMAP.

    tim.fry wrote:
    My email provider is BT and they do support POP3, that's what I have been using for a number of years
    Okay.
    Then set it up.

  • How do I change my email account from IMAP to POP on my MacBook Pro

    My email provider has changed and no longer uses Yahoo IMAP, so I need to change the email to a POP account but my MacBook automatically chooses Yahoo IMAP when I try to create a new account.  Any suggestions how I can change from IMAP to POP?

    My email provider is BT and they have just moved me from BT Yahoo Mail to BT Mail.  I deleted the Yahoo email account and then used the Other Account option to input BT Mail, but unfortunately my MacBook decided that it still wanted me to use BT Yahoo.  So for several weeks I keep getting locked out of my mail and get the message box "Can't access mail' or something like that and wants me to put in the Yahoo mail password which is no longer valid.  I don't actually want to use POP (and actually have no idea what IMAP AND POP do!), but when I contacted BT support they suggested that I needed to use POP for BT Mail.  However having trawled the BT site I think what I was told was a load of rubbish.  So I suppose the real question is how to get rid of Yahoo Mail.

  • Messages from POP account not showing up in IMAP account folders

    I've posted on this already, but I'm a little clearer about what the issue is, so I'm gonna try again.
    I'm using Mac Mail. Recently my ISP assigned me an IMAP account. [Customer service says "we only use POP," but I can't get a POP account.] Messages in my mailboxes show up fine. I'm having difficulty with the mailboxes directly associated with the account---Inbox, Sent, Draft, etc.
    I have only one Inbox. There are three Sent folders---the one that is always at the top of the sidebar, and two in an IMAP-specific set of folders. I coped the older messages from the POP account into what I thought were the corresponding folders of the IMAP account. Copied messages appear only in one of the IMAP Sent folders. However, when opened, they have no content. In some cases there is an indication that the content is "loading" but nothing ever appears.
    Is it possible to get the older messages from the POP to show up with content in the IMAP folders? I gather from reading related threads from the archive that copying messages between account types should not be a problem, but it is for me.
    Thanks,

    Well, I thought I found a solution in the archives here: Import the old messages from within Mail. Had no doubt that would work. Well, it didn't. Though all the old messages were Apple Mail messages, when I tried to import Mail said, "No valid Apple Mail files were found." Tried importing them as mbox files. Same result.
    IMAP has advantages for people who check mail from more than one device, or for multiple users of an account. Not having been forwarned by AT&T that I was going to be switched from POP to IMAP, it has been a big headache for me. And it clutters up the sidebar with a changing collection of folders, including many that seem redundant, and some whose purpose I can't, in my ignorance, imagine.
    Supposed to get a call today or tomorrow from a unit in AT&T that is "specially trained" to handle problems like mine. We'll see.
    I sure would like to get help from somewhere.

  • 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

  • Problems with email after switching from POP to IMAP

    I recently switched from POP to IMAP settings on my MacBook Pro (OS X Yosemite 10.10.2). My email seems to time out and then my emails seem to disappear. Then I  have to logout and re-launch every few minutes to keep seeing my emails. Everything seems to be working fine for my iPhone and it's IMAP settings. Any ideas anyone?

    William Kucharski wrote:
    V.K. wrote:
    when an IMAP account is set to use IDLE (a desktop equivalent of push) the emails are pushed by the IMAP server to Mail as soon as they are received. when this happens no new mail sound is played.
    That is incorrect.
    well, it always worked this way for me on all my imap accounts (I have 4).
    and I've seen lots and lots of posts describing the same behavior. I don't know what's going on in your case.
    I have two email accounts, both use IMAP IDLE, and I get the new mail sound each and every time a new mail message is delivered to either.
    So there's some other factor at work here.

  • Mail: change Gmail from POP to IMAP without loosing old mail

    My Gmail account setup in Mail is old enough to be POP. Want to change it to IMAP for easier syncing between Mail on Mac, iPhone and iPad. All instructions on Google site just say to delete the POP account in Mail and create a new Gmail IMAP account. Unfortunately, trying to delete the POP account immediately warns that all emails related to that account will be deleted if the account is deleted.
    How do I make the change from POP to IMAP in Mail and still retain all my past emails on the Mac (most of them are long gone from Google servers)?
    Thanks in advance.

    The warning about the deletion of the mails of the account in question can only refer to the inbox. No email you have archived or put into a different folder will be deleted. If you're still worried back everything up before going ahead.

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