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IMAP vs. POP3

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  • Last reply by Zenos

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Before IMAP, this is what I used to do (& would like to continue doing it): I had my desktop set to download emails from my ISP server and delete those messages after downloading. However, with my laptop, I set it to leave the messages on the server. That way all messages would be available to my desktop, where I store them, even those I had looked at using the laptop. I can't figure out how to do this with IMAP. I set the synchronization account setting on my laptop to NOT keep messages on the computer, but that doesn't work. Also, when I delete a message on the laptop, it deletes it from the server, making it unavailable to my desktop. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Before IMAP, this is what I used to do (& would like to continue doing it): I had my desktop set to download emails from my ISP server and delete those messages after downloading. However, with my laptop, I set it to leave the messages on the server. That way all messages would be available to my desktop, where I store them, even those I had looked at using the laptop. I can't figure out how to do this with IMAP. I set the synchronization account setting on my laptop to NOT keep messages on the computer, but that doesn't work. Also, when I delete a message on the laptop, it deletes it from the server, making it unavailable to my desktop. Any suggestion? Thanks.

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You could almost certainly continue using POP.

But with IMAP, moving messages to Local Folders on the desktop is the nearest equivalent to how POP works. Doing so gives you a permanent private copy and removes it from the server.

If you want to keep a message then do not delete it on the laptop. It will go away of its own accord when you attend to it on the ďesktop machine.

I work it the other way round. I use IMAP and all my messages are visible and accessible on my desktop, my own laptop, my computer at work and also on my phone and tablet. Portable devices are quite smart at choosing what to store locally and what to download on demand. If I don't need to keep a message, I can delete it immediately regardless of which device I am using at that moment (whereas with POP you'd have to delete it on every machine until you got round to deleting the server copy.) The phone and tablet are hopeless for dealing with spam and Junk, but I can pop stuff into the Junk folder to be dealt with in Thunderbird if I want to do more than just delete it on sight.

Modified by Zenos