IMAP or POP

Hi, I'm switching from PC to my new iMac. I used Outlook on my PC, and backed up my email database from Outlook to a PST file, and copied them to my Mac. I purchased PST Converter Pro for my Mac, and imported to my Mac Mail app.

My mail provider (cox.net) has both IMAP and POP available, but when I set up my email account on the Mac, it automatically made it an IMAP account. When I moved imported messages to the main Mail account, it sent copies up to the mail server. I like to keep my messages local, and do not want to keep them on the server.

Is there any way to change an existing IMAP Mail account to POP? Is there any reason I should not do this? I just spent half an hour deleting messages uploaded to the Cox mail server after moving them to the Mail account on the Mac.

What would you suggest for my situation. I'm thinking that I don't understand the process properly. Hopefully this makes sense, but any enlightenment would be appreciated.

Thanks

I have both types of account for convenience purposes. The IMAP account is a must if you own other devices. For example: You have a Mac at home, but also own an iPhone and maybe an iPad. An IMAP account will keep your mail in sync with all your devices - because the mail is kept on the server. However, if your Mac is all you own, then a POP account is probably what you would want to have since all your mail is stored locally. Some POP accounts (gmail for example) will additionally store POP mail on their server even after you download it. However, you can remove the mail from the server if desired by checking that option in your mail program.

Thanks for the reply - is there any way to force an account in Apple's Mail app to use POP instead of IMAP? Can I change the format without re-creating the account? Thanks

randy_m said:

Thanks for the reply - is there any way to force an account in Apple's Mail app to use POP instead of IMAP? Can I change the format without re-creating the account? Thanks

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Apple Mail has nothing to do with the account type, POP or IMAP. It's your provider (Cox) that you need to have change it. After it's changed by Cox, then you can make adjustments to Apple Mail in preferences, accounts. You do not have to re-create the account.

In Windows, it's just a matter of changing the server from imap.cox.net to pop.cox.net during manual setup, but OSX didn't give me a change to choose the server - or am I missing something?

Thanks

Delete your current account then add it back then you can select pop or imap.

osxx said:

Delete your current account then add it back then you can select pop or imap.

Click to expand...

Tried that, but I can't figure out how to defeat the automatic setup and go to manual

put a wrong password in, it will likely then ask you to configure manually

I've since realized that I can just leave the imported items in the 'Import' folder in my Mail app, and just use it as an archive, leaving the IMAP mailboxes just for stuff that arrives from now on. No real need to consolidate everything. It was a bit of a learning curve, though