Simultaneous POP and IMAP configuration
 

Hello,

I have an e-mail account of the company, to which I can access the webmail service server.

This email account is set up on mobile pc, using MS outlook and with the protocols at reception/dispatch POP/SMTP.
So far, so good.

However I have configured the email on phone (Xperia miro, with application of native email phone).
I have this setting using the protocols at reception/sending IMAP/SMTP.

Now the situation is as follows:

1- when sending or responding to an e-mail using the phone (IMAP/SMTP), this email or response does not appear on the PC (outlook POP/SMTP).
2- If you send an email from phone and delete it, does not appear in outlook in the folder "sent"
3- on the webmail server company, does not appear any email, or sent or received. all folders are empty.

My question is:

Which errors can arise in the preview, at reception and sending e-mail on both devices, PC (Outlook - POP/SMTP)
and phone (IMAP/SMTP), i.e. , as it is that these different configurations in two locations
can cause failures of reading and sending of either on the pc or on the phone?

It is appropriate to use a configuration POP and IMAP for a same e-mail account in two different devices?

Thank you

No, having two different devices access the same account via two different protocols (IMAP/POP) will not work well.

IMAP is designed to store messages on the mail server. It stores incoming and outgoing messages on the server in folders.

POP3 is designed to store messages on the local device. It downloads incoming messages to local storage and places outgoing messages in local storage. The only folder on the server it accesses is Inbox, not Sent or any other user folder.

Using IMAP on all devices results in them all seeing the server message store, keeping the message folders synchronized.

Using POP3 on even one device results in messages being removed from the server message store, making them invisible to clients using IMAP. It also does not allow the POP3 client to access sent messages.

You must use IMAP access on all devices if you want to keep the messages stored on the server available to all clients.

OK, formidable. :)

Just a question, can I reset the configuration of the pc laptop for IMAP or do I have to delete the account and configure again since the beginning?

If I understand it correctly then I can change the outlook account for IMAP without losing the messages that were sent and received while it was configured with POP?

Thank you for your explanation.

I don't use Outlook, but in my experience changing an account from POP3 access to IMAP access usually requires adding the account as IMAP and then deleting or disabling the POP3 entry.

IMAP access will always have a separate Inbox for each account, while POP3 access was usually configured for all accounts to go into the same shared local inbox.

Once you have the local POP3 mail and the access to the IMAP server based mailbox on the same client, you can copy the messages that were downloaded to the local client back onto the server Inbox or other folder. This will allow your other IMAP clients -- like your phone -- to also have access to those e-mails.

I suspect that you will need to set up a new account entry to access the server via IMAP, but this should not lose you any messages you already downloaded to the local client with POP3.

kaptitsky,

Thank you very very much!!

Compliments

Hello again,

I know if i configure all the devices with imap all messages remains on the webserver, but can i configure the email account with imap on outlook and on phone, but, at same time that messages are stored on webserver, always keep all the messages (sended and incomming) downloaded in the outlook?

Thank you

Most full e-mail clients keep a full locally cached copy of the server messages that can be backed up as needed.

Google will offer you many ways to backup mail on an IMAP based server: https://www.google.com/#q=backup+imap+email

This article is specifically about doing backups of server based folders in Outlook: https://support.office.com/en-za/art...c-aa1c33b18833

You can also backup IMAP mail by copying them to another server with another e-mail account in an email client. I find making a copy to Gmail very useful, as Gmail has good tools to use in searching and managing mail.

One note: I would not keep all messages in the Inbox forever. Moving messages to folders makes them easier to manage.

Very nice.

Thank you very much

best regards

Hi all,

my first post here. I am aware this thread is quite old but there are a few corrections that I would like to add.

This is not true, at least not for gmail. Using both POP and IMAP access with gmail account works quite well and there certainly are situations when one would like to use both.

Again, not true because of:

1. There are several options in gmail POP settings to set up what to do when the message is accessed through POP. One can choose whether the message accessed through POP will be deleted, marked as read, left in the inbox or archived.

2. Every decent email client has the option 'Leave mail on server' or similar.

Moreover, when using gmail multiple clients you do have the ability to access the messages sent from other POP clients - although in other email clients these (sent) messages show in the inbox instead of in the 'sent' folder.

While that might not be the case with all email services, there is no need to use IMAP to access gmail messages from multiple devices, POP can be used as well. When googling:

gmail recent mode

and opening the very first search result, there is an 'I want to download emails on multiple email clients' subtitle where it says:

It's easiest to use Gmail on multiple email clients using IMAP. If you need to use POP instead of IMAP, set up "Recent mode." Recent mode shows your last 30 days of emails from Gmail.

Step 1: Turn on Recent mode

In your email client's POP settings page, find the "Email address" or "User name" field.
Add recent: in front of your email address. For example, recent:example@gmail.com.

Step 2: Change your POP settings

Change your POP settings so that your emails are left on the server.

Outlook: On the "Advanced" tab, click Leave a copy of messages on the server.
Apple Mail: On the "Advanced" tab, uncheck the box next to "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message."
Thunderbird: On the "Server Settings" tab, check the box next to "Leave messages on server."

Your point, that Gmail does not use a standards based implementation of either POP3 or IMAP4 is correct.

Mail servers that do not use standard protocols may support different function of IMAP and POP3, but for servers that are standards compliant, as was the original posters, "having two different devices access the same account via two different protocols (IMAP/POP) will not work well."