Complicated POP3 setup - possible?

[dingdongbubble]

So this is the kind of setup I want:
I setup all my emails to get downloaded to my Mac using POP3 into Thunderbird or OS X Mail.
But they only get downloaded manually at the end of the day when and if I want.
The emails get deleted from the cloud.
During the day I get to access my emails like normal on my iPhone with push enabled and all.
Instead of having years of emails on my Mac, I archive emails that are 6 months or a year old (some set value), once a year or whenever I want, to an external hard drive encrypted in a Truecrypt volume or whatever.

So is this possible? If so how?

 

[takeshi74]

During the day I get to access my emails like normal on my iPhone with push enabled and all.

POP accounts are pull, not push.

 

[James_C]

Yes it is possible, providing your email provider has both a PoP and an IMAP service. The email service that I use in the UK has both an IMAP and a POP server.

You would setup Mac Mail to the POP server and your mobile device to the IMAP server.

You can set your Mac to remove the emails from the server when they have been downloaded ( in Mail preferences look under the Accounts tab, then Advanced - there is an option to remove the email from the server after it has been downloaded). It is possible to set up Apple Mail to only download your emails manually rather than every n minutes in preferences (under the general tab - look for the drop down 'Check for new messages' and change to Manual). If you are using Mountain Lion you may also want to disable power-nap if you have a Mac that supports it, as this allows you to download emails while the Mac is asleep, however not sure if the download manually settings will override Power Nap in any case.

One key point is once they have been downloaded from the server they will no longer be available on your Mobile devices, as IMAP will only sync to emails left on the server. This means you can only see your historical emails on your Mac and your mobile devices can only show you emails that you have not yet downloaded to your Mac.

 

[dingdongbubble]

Yes it is possible, providing your email provider has both a PoP and an IMAP service. The email service that I use in the UK has both an IMAP and a POP server.

You would setup Mac Mail to the POP server and your mobile device to the IMAP server.

You can set your Mac to remove the emails from the server when they have been downloaded ( in Mail preferences look under the Accounts tab, then Advanced - there is an option to remove the email from the server after it has been downloaded). It is possible to set up Apple Mail to only download your emails manually rather than every n minutes in preferences (under the general tab - look for the drop down 'Check for new messages' and change to Manual). If you are using Mountain Lion you may also want to disable power-nap if you have a Mac that supports it, as this allows you to download emails while the Mac is asleep, however not sure if the download manually settings will override Power Nap in any case.

One key point is once they have been downloaded from the server they will no longer be available on your Mobile devices, as IMAP will only sync to emails left on the server. This means you can only see your historical emails on your Mac and your mobile devices can only show you emails that you have not yet downloaded to your Mac.

Perfect. Just what I wanted. I figured out that in Thunderbird you can archive emails and have them in folders by year or by month or even one large folder which is just perfect. I could also set it to delete emails on the server that are a year old or something.

What's even better is that it still indexes emails that you have archived. So in the unlikely event that I want an old email, the email will show up but in archives, so then I can plug in my external drive and get the email. Thanks very much.