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Switching from POP3 to IMAP


kgagne

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Hello,

I've been using Spamcop for about eight years, always POPping into Apple Mail. Locally, I've accrued about 100 folders and 4 GB of archived sent and received messages. My MacBook has always been my only computing device, so keeping everything synced by restricting my email usage to that machine has not been an issue.

Now the whole world has gone mobile, and I would like to be able to send and receive messages on other devices and have that reflected in Apple Mail. I presume this means switching from POP3 to IMAP. I've used IMAP with other email providers, but I've never switched an existing account *to* IMAP. I have a few questions about the process.

  • Will my 4 GB of local mail archives be uploaded to SpamCop's servers?
  • If so, will my folder hierarchy be preserved?
  • What storage limitations does my SpamCop account have -- will I max out before I can upload all 4 GB?
  • Other than making local SuperDuper & Time Machine backups, is there anything I can or should do to prevent errors and data loss during the initial protocol transition?

I searched the SpamCop Web site and forum to see if this topic has been discussed before but didn't see anything. I'd happily accept pointers to existing discussions, rather than repeat them in this thread.

Thank you!

-Ken

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Hello,

I've been using Spamcop for about eight years, always POPping into Apple Mail. Locally, I've accrued about 100 folders and 4 GB of archived sent and received messages. My MacBook has always been my only computing device, so keeping everything synced by restricting my email usage to that machine has not been an issue.

Now the whole world has gone mobile, and I would like to be able to send and receive messages on other devices and have that reflected in Apple Mail. I presume this means switching from POP3 to IMAP. I've used IMAP with other email providers, but I've never switched an existing account *to* IMAP. I have a few questions about the process.

  • Will my 4 GB of local mail archives be uploaded to SpamCop's servers?
  • If so, will my folder hierarchy be preserved?
  • What storage limitations does my SpamCop account have -- will I max out before I can upload all 4 GB?
  • Other than making local SuperDuper & Time Machine backups, is there anything I can or should do to prevent errors and data loss during the initial protocol transition?

I searched the SpamCop Web site and forum to see if this topic has been discussed before but didn't see anything. I'd happily accept pointers to existing discussions, rather than repeat them in this thread.

Thank you!

When you switch from POP to IMAP nothing uploads from your email program to our servers. What you have locally in your archived folders will stay there.

You do not have to switch your computer access to IMAP *if* you are happy seeing new mail on your smartphone or tablet but then d/ling everything to your computer (POP) next time you are at your computer. In other words your mobile devices would see new mail only. If that is what you want to do make sure your computer is not automatically POPing your account every X minutes. This scenario assumes that basically you are at your computer frequently and only using the mobile device occasionally out and about and will actually handle the mails when you are back at your computer.

-Ken

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...To restate the reply from email_support 82977[/snapback] which was (inadvertently?) included within the "quote":

When you switch from POP to IMAP nothing uploads from your email program to our servers. What you have locally in your archived folders will stay there.

You do not have to switch your computer access to IMAP *if* you are happy seeing new mail on your smartphone or tablet but then d/ling everything to your computer (POP) next time you are at your computer. In other words your mobile devices would see new mail only. If that is what you want to do make sure your computer is not automatically POPing your account every X minutes. This scenario assumes that basically you are at your computer frequently and only using the mobile device occasionally out and about and will actually handle the mails when you are back at your computer.

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...To restate the reply from email_support 82977[/snapback] which was (inadvertently?) included within the "quote":

When you switch from POP to IMAP nothing uploads from your email program to our servers. What you have locally in your archived folders will stay there.

You do not have to switch your computer access to IMAP *if* you are happy seeing new mail on your smartphone or tablet but then d/ling everything to your computer (POP) next time you are at your computer. In other words your mobile devices would see new mail only. If that is what you want to do make sure your computer is not automatically POPing your account every X minutes. This scenario assumes that basically you are at your computer frequently and only using the mobile device occasionally out and about and will actually handle the mails when you are back at your computer.

TY

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Thank you for the help, all!

It's important to me that not only incoming mail be synced, but outgoing, too. If I continue to use POP on my computer but IMAP on my mobile device, will messages sent from the mobile device later be synced into the "Sent Mail" folder on my computer?

-Ken

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