POP3 Email Accounts
POP3 (or Post Office Protocol 3) simply retrieves emails from the email server and allows the user to read them on their device. Very much like having a piece of mail wait at the ‘post office’ until you go and pick it up – hence the name. In this circumstance, the program used to ‘retrieve’ the mail (i.e. Outlook) downloads all messages from the server when the program is open. Your ‘send and receive’ function in Outlook is a good example of how you can command the program to ‘go get your mail’.
The benefit to POP3 is that the program that you’re working with (i.e. Outlook) will not interfere with any emails that reside on the server (with the proper settings done in Outlook during setup). So if, for example, you accidentally delete an email, you can log in directly to the server via webmail and you will see that it is still on the server for your use. However, that being said, there are 2 important setting to have applied in your Outlook as follows:
- set your email settings to ‘save a copy to server’
- set your emails to turn off the feature in Outlook that automatically deleted emails from the server when you delete them from your deleted box in Outlook, or select to remove them from the server after a specific number of days
Also, if your computer crashes, you can simply set up a new POP3 account on the new computer, and all old emails you have left on the server will come filtering into the new Outlook. They will be marked as unread because the server thinks you are just ‘picking up the mail‘ for the first time, but you can simply mark them all as read.
The one downside to POP3 is that, when restoring an account on a new computer, everything you ever deleted via your email software (and meant to delete – like spam) will all still be there, and you would need to delete them again. In addition, if you have sorted folders previously, these will likely be lost and you would have to start again.
IMAP Email Accounts
IMAP (or Internet Message Access Protocol) is a more advanced protocol – or method – of retrieving email, and although it was initially intended to take over the POP3 method, it did not become as widely used as originally expected. IMAP communicates directly with the server over the internet to read and access email. It is as though you were skipping your email software (i.e. Outlook) altogether and were just working via webmail – the result would be the same.
The biggest difference people notice with IMAP is that, if you read an email via an IMAP set up on your phone, it will also be marked as read in your email program (like Outlook) at your home or office, and webmail, and anywhere else that you access your email from. So, for example, if you are on the road and receive 100 emails while you are away, even though you may have read and addressed them via your IMAP phone, they will be marked as unread in your Outlook at the office (assuming the office is POP3). You would then have to select each of those 100 emails again and mark them as read manually.
Another advantage to using IMAP is that anything you delete (like spam) from your IMAP account is removed directly from the server. You will not see that SPAM again unless it has been downloaded by a POP3 account at the same time. For example, let’s say you get spam on your blackber ry and your office computer at the same time; the phone is IMAP, and you delete the spam on there, the spam is off the server; if you delete it from your office computer’s POP3 account, the spam will still be available on the server, just not in your email software.
In the same way, if you sort your emails into folders in an IMAP account, the same folders will be available wherever you access the account from, rather than everything sitting in one big inbox.
The major disadvantages to IMAP, and the reason we recommend against it for most users who are not 100% comfortable with their emails, are:
- If you accidentally delete something – it does not sit in a trash box to be undeleted – it is gone forever and cannot be retrieved
- If you receive a lot of emails, it can make the download process from the server much slower (which is why some phones take longer to receive email)
- If you switch email providers, none of your old emails will be available as they reside strictly on the old server, and will not be available on the new server; to avoid this loss, switch your account to POP3 before switching providers – all of the old emails will automatically download from the old server to your desktop software so that none will be lost.
Mobile Phone Emails
A lot of phones default to IMAP, which is fine if the user is ok with downloading their emails onto an office computer using POP3 – which is the best way for most offices. What that means however in a situation like this, is that if your phone is using IMAP and you switch your email provider, you will not see any old emails on your phone. The account will appear to start fresh. This is not a concern for most clients as they typically have copies of all of their emails on their POP3 office computers.
To avoid this loss, switch your account to POP3 before switching providers. All of the old emails will automatically download from the old server to your phone so that none will be lost.
If your computers are not set to POP3 (which most of them probably will be by default), create a new account in Outlook for the same email address and make sure it is set to POP3 (not IMAP). Then, all emails that this account has received will filter off of your current server onto your computer. This is VERY important because if you only have an IMAP set up, and you switch your mail server (i.e. switching your email hosting from an old provider to SiteWyze Solutions) you will lose all emails tied to the old provider via the IMAP setting.
It can seem very overwhelming, so if you need help with this, please feel free to call and speak with a SiteWyze Solutions consultant.