[X4U] convert POP to IMAP

Christopher Collins maclist at analogdigital.com.au
Tue Oct 7 04:55:55 PDT 2008


I've sat by during this whole POP-IMAP debate and wondered what the  
heck you people are going on about.

It is not an either/or decision. You don't have to choose either type  
and apply it to all your mail accounts.

I have 16 mail accounts over 4 servers.

MobileMe and the three master accounts at each server are IMAP. They  
can then all be synced to my iPhone and whatever happens on the iPhone  
is reflected on the server. Delete an email on the iPhone and it is  
deleted off the server.

The other 12 accounts are all POP. Why? Because I don't need them to  
be synced to the iPhone. They are only wanted to be on one machine,  
and as they are basically all mailing lists, I don't need to keep  
copies on the server.

Is there any difference between the accounts in usage?

Only the delay on the IMAP accounts while the server is read.

Otherwise they are all identical. Mail rules, archive storage and  
attachments.

Choose the type that suits you and is required by your usage of your  
account.

If POP is the best way to achieve what you want to achieve on that  
account, then use POP.

If IMAP is a better answer for that account and the usage you want,  
then choose IMAP for that account.

Simple really.

Regards,

cjc


On 07/10/2008, at 10:19 PM, riteme wrote:

> hello - I've been following the "can apple's mail  pick up gmail  
> thread" which actually convinced me to change my dot mac account  
> from POP to IMAP. reason being I have an iphone and want it all to  
> be in sync with messages read.
>
> My concern is of course not to mess things up .... my question is  
> what to do with all the folders i use - 7 years of email all filed  
> into nested hierarchal folders.
> -I'm under the impression i can simply drag these folders into the  
> new imap account and they will migrate.
> - or do i create new folders and then drag the messages?
>
> this also might be a good time however to archive folders i no  
> longer use, ie old jobs, and prune this all down - on the other  
> hand, if i migrate them they are backed up again.
>
> another question is rules. i assume they will simply work .....
>
> I've been reading various "how to" migrate and it seems fairly  
> straightforward - is there anything in particular anyone's learned  
> doing this that i should be aware of?
>
> as an aside, this might help someone else - as an interim step  i  
> set up another gmail account and configured it to fetch my dot mac  
> mail - then set THAT account up on my iphone.   this is pretty  
> neat.   i mention it because if you have a POP account, it's a great  
> way to seamlessly back up your email (skip the iphone step)  as it  
> goes to both accounts, dot mac and the gmail. (did i explain that  
> clearly).
>
> thanks for the help, eric


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