IMAP or POP

It’s very easy to set up mailboxes and either just login via the webmail using your email address and a password, or you can set your mailboxes up as IMAP accounts so they synch with every device the account is set up on. You can set them up as POP accounts too, but they are now nearly redundant nowadays as you can’t synch a POP account between other devices!

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is an advanced protocol for receiving e-mail. It is a method of accessing e-mail messages which are stored on a mail server hosted in the cloud. The main advantage of IMAP over POP3 is the ability to keep the original e-mail stored on the mail server and the ability to access the same account from multiple locations using different devices. Unlike POP3 where e-mail is downloaded to the computer or device checking for mail and completely removed from the mail server, IMAP simply downloads a copy of the e-mail. This is much more convenient as the e-mail account can be set up on multiple computers and devices using IMAP and the original e-mail will always remain on the mail server.

In cases where a mobile phone or personal computer was configured to be the primary means of checking e-mail and malfunctions, is lost, stolen, or totally inoperable, it also means the e-mails won’t be lost. If you set up the account using IMAP on another computer, device or simply check the webmail, you’ll find that all e-mails are still there.

Your old POP account mail would just stay where it is in your old inbox and other folders, and you can either search for it there when you need it, or you can migrate it into your new IMAP account folders. If you want to migrate it, you can either “drag and drop” your old folders yourself (but this might take some time to complete because it is being uploaded to your mail server so it can “synch”), or we can migrate it for you. Or your IT people can set everything up for you and migrate your mail too if required, and we’ll just give you/her the instructions and guidelines to set the mailboxes up.