IMAP or POP for Mail?

Hi Lightning Bolt - concerning your second question below, I started a post yesterday of this same password request issue - I have a Yahoo account and believe that the fault is w/ the Yahoo server; seems to be working fine today; several others responded w/ similar comments - so you may want to just wait a day or two -

The POP3 protocol is like your mailbox @ home, i.e. once the mail is delivered, then it no longer resides elsewhere (the usual default choice although POP can be setup to save copies on the mailing delivery server, this may not be an offered option) - thus, once your mail is delivered, it is no longer available on the server for viewing by your other devices (computers, iOS devices, or other phones).

The IMAP protocol keeps those messages on the server (unless you tell it to delete them on your local device) and they remain available for you to view w/ your other devices. IMAP has been replacing the POP3 protocol, which may not even to offered (or as a second choice) as a mailing delivery service now by providers.

Now w/ a half dozen accounts or more, you might just want to prioritize those that are most important and need to be always available on all of your devices vs. those that might work fine w/ a POP3 protocol - but bottom line up to you - good luck! Dave

 

Agreed. I posted in another thread stating this problem that I was experiencing the same issue. Today it is fine...Yahoo issue.

 

OP like you, I used POP because it was THE way way back when I set up email accounts. However, I've recently switched to IMAP and find it far superior. Back when you might have just one or maybe 2 devices with email clients, it probably didn't offer much advantage. But now that we have more than 2 devices with email clients, IMAP really shows it's advantages. RadDave explained the key one- where email is stored- in his post. By leaving mail storage on the server, anything you do with that mail shows up the same on your other clients.

For example, if you get mail on your iPad, it is moved to that iPad with POP. That means when you check mail on your computer or phone, that message is gone. The big pain in this is accidentally leaving one of your email clients running on something that automatically checks mail regularly. Then, you hit the road and keep checking mail and all seems quiet. It's not that you aren't getting any/much email, it's that the device you left on is getting most/all of the mail. You won't discover this until you get back to that device.

Say you have a Mac running Mail with auto-check on. You don't shut it down before you leave for vacation. That Mac is going to keep downloading new mail. You might be checking mail with your iPhone or iPad and not getting much- if any. Then, you get home and find all this email you missed. While that can be more blessing than curse, you're not checking email so often in hopes of missing emails.

IMAP works different. Your Mac will keep showing your new mail in that scenario but it will also show on any other clients you open. On that vacation, you read your mail, delete some of it, move some of it to folders, etc and when you get back home, whatever you did with it while away will be that way on your Mac too. Open the iPad, and it will be that way on your iPad too.

What about replies? Reply in POP and those replies are only in the Sent box on whatever email client you used to create those replies. Reply in IMAP and those replies will be visible in Sent on all of your other email clients too.

What about being able to work with mail offline such as when flying? IMAP still downloads mail like POP. You can still do offline replies, mail organizing, deleting mail, etc... and then when you do connect, IMAP will "sync" with the server so all that work syncs up with your other email clients. Mail you deleted with your iPhone will be deleted on your Mac & iPad too. Mail you moved to folders on your iPad will be moved to the same folders on your Mac & iPhone too. Etc.

(Too) Long Story Short: I can't see any advantage to POP over IMAP. The latter feels just about the same in operation but I notice all of the niceties as I hop email client to email client.