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Converting POP to IMAP Account

post #1 of 8
4/30/10 at 3:44pm
Thread Starter 
Looking for some advice on converting an existing POP mail account to IMAP. I have already added this mail account to my iPad as IMAP and would now like to change it to IMAP in Apple Mail. I don't see how it's possible to change this setting in the account preferences, so it appears I will have to recreate it as IMAP. Should I simply deactivate the existing POP account, or delete it? If I delete it, won't I lose all of the existing e-mail?

Thanks!
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post #2 of 8
4/30/10 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post

won't I lose all of the existing e-mail?

Depends. If you chose the option to "leave mail on server after downloading" then no. If you chose to delete mail off the server after downloading then yes. You'll have to get that mail back into your account which may mean re-sending it to yourself. Not elegant but...
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post #3 of 8
4/30/10 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
I've been auto-deleting downloaded mail from the mail server. I can't possibly send all those mails to myself. We're talking thousands. I suppose I could just deactivate but not delete the POP account, which leaves me with an extra inbox. Or I could leave it as-is on my iMac and continue to access it with IMAP on my iPad. Don't know if I'm asking for trouble doing that.
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post #4 of 8
5/1/10 at 2:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post

Or I could leave it as-is on my iMac and continue to access it with IMAP on my iPad. Don't know if I'm asking for trouble doing that.

No, that should be fine to do that but as mentioned above, you would set the POP account on your desktop to leave mail on the server. This is the setup I use (POP on desktop, IMAP on iPhone). I like it because it adds a layer of backup. If your mail server went down and lost all your email, you'd still have copies on your desktop in your POP account. Also, you can still reference/search email if your internet goes down.
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post #5 of 8
5/1/10 at 8:45am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

No, that should be fine to do that but as mentioned above, you would set the POP account on your desktop to leave mail on the server. This is the setup I use (POP on desktop, IMAP on iPhone). I like it because it adds a layer of backup. If your mail server went down and lost all your email, you'd still have copies on your desktop in your POP account. Also, you can still reference/search email if your internet goes down.

Much appreciated. My domain host finally got back to me on this question with the same answer. But I wonder whether never deleting won't become a problem on my mail server after not very long, and also whether setting up the POP side of the account this way won't cause longer IMAP syncs.
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post #6 of 8
5/1/10 at 12:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post

I wonder whether never deleting won't become a problem on my mail server after not very long, and also whether setting up the POP side of the account this way won't cause longer IMAP syncs.

It depends on how many emails you get and your server account limits. Plus, deleting emails from your IMAP account will delete them from the server. You can also set the POP account to remove emails after a certain time. So say you monitor emails using the iPad, your desktop is sitting in another room downloading email too, once the emails are downloaded, the desktop can delete the server version 1 month after downloading them. This way you get 1 month to see them in the IMAP account.

Another option could be to use POP on both iPad and desktop because itunes allow you to sync mail accounts up and again you can simply set the accounts to delete email from the server after a certain amount of time. This way you can search archived mail on the iPad. I'm not sure if this syncs back email deletions though.
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post #7 of 8
5/1/10 at 1:38pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

It depends on how many emails you get and your server account limits. Plus, deleting emails from your IMAP account will delete them from the server. You can also set the POP account to remove emails after a certain time. So say you monitor emails using the iPad, your desktop is sitting in another room downloading email too, once the emails are downloaded, the desktop can delete the server version 1 month after downloading them. This way you get 1 month to see them in the IMAP account.

Another option could be to use POP on both iPad and desktop because itunes allow you to sync mail accounts up and again you can simply set the accounts to delete email from the server after a certain amount of time. This way you can search archived mail on the iPad. I'm not sure if this syncs back email deletions though.

Mail on the iPad does not have any settings for server deletion on POP accounts AFAIK. Probably I will eventually take your suggestion of setting the desktop Mac to delete from the server after a month. This should work for me, as the main purpose of the iPad is read new mail away from the office. If I read but don't delete the e-mail on the iPad, when I pick up mail from that account on the iMac, it should download -- correct? Or will I have to mark it as unread on the iPad?
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post #8 of 8
5/1/10 at 1:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post

This should work for me, as the main purpose of the iPad is read new mail away from the office.

That's the way I use the iPhone.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post

If I read but don't delete the e-mail on the iPad, when I pick up mail from that account on the iMac, it should download -- correct? Or will I have to mark it as unread on the iPad?

It'll still download after reading - I can't remember if it comes down marked as read.
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