Help with email - iPhone deletes off Mac

[cmb13]

I've used an iPhone and a Mac for years. I keep my all emails on my Mac (except spam), and delete them off my iPhone to keep only very current and needed ones on the iPhone. Lately, though, whenever I delete from my phone, it is deleting from my Mac also. I don't know why or how to change this. I would like to continue to keep my emails on the Mac, yet keep the iPhone clean.

The iCloud email is not turned on on the Mac or the phone. Can you help?

Thanks

 

[Juicy Box]

You use iCloud for your email?

This sounds like a POP3 vs IMAP issue, and iCloud doesn't support POP3 according to this, but you said it once worked.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm NOT an IMAP user.
But I believe this is how IMAP is supposed to work.

That is... the incoming mail is stored "on the server", so it is viewable on all your devices.

When you choose to delete an individual email from one device, doing so deletes it FROM THE SERVER, so now "it's gone" on ALL your devices.

I could be wrong about that.

HOWEVER...
There's a way to "preserve" the email on your Mac, even though you delete it from the server.

How to do that:
On your Mac, open Mail.app.
Choose to create one (or more) "new mailboxes" in the "on my Mac" area.
Mail that is in these mailboxes is not affected by what you delete on the server.

Next:
Move the incoming mails you want to keep from your "inbox" to the folders you've created in the "on my Mac" area. This creates "a local copy" of them in those mailboxes. And they should stay there until you delete them "locally".

I believe that's how it's supposed to work.