Blog Thread
- Switch from POP3 to IMAP
POP3 to IMAP
As you know, we have upgraded your email server system from POP3 to IMAP/POP3. Using IMAP allows you to sync email between your PC and any mobile devices, like a tablet or smartphone.
If you have decided to move from POP3 to IMAP, great! However, please read these instructions before making the changeover, or else you may inadvertently lose all of your email, like I just did (fortunately I had everything backed up).
First, to recap, the difference between POP3 and IMAP is that you store your all your email on your PC with POP3, and on a server with IMAP. When you switch from POP3 to IMAP, all your new email will stay on the server, but do not forget that all your old emails are still on your PC. This is what I did. Once I had set up IMAP on my PC and made sure it worked, I deleted my POP3 setup on my mail software, which also deleted all the email stored on my PC.
That is what you should not do when you switch to IMAP.
The first step to properly switching to IMAP is to take your POP3 email client software offline, meaning it will not send or receive any email. Once your email software is offline, create a backup of your email. Once this is done, instead of the modifying current POP3 setup to IMAP (which many email clients will not let you do anyway), create a new account within your email client for IMAP. Send or receive an email to make sure IMAP is working.
When that is complete, you should have both POP3 (now offline) and IMAP (now working) set up on your email client. That is how the system should work while you are transitioning your email from POP3 to IMAP.
You can then start copying emails from your PC to the IMAP server by creating folders for the IMAP account, and dragging and dropping email from your PC to the server. When all your emails are moved or copied to the IMAP server and you confirm that they are there, you can delete the POP3 account from your email software.
Remember, IMAP takes a lot of disk space on the server, so make sure you have enough for all your email. If you do not have enough space on the server, you will need to add more space by asking your provider, in this case PSP Inc.
IMAP is a wonderful system for people who have more than one device they use to access email, but to take advantage of it, you need to transfer your email safely. If you need assistance transferring from POP3 to IMAP, PSP Inc. support is happy to work with you.
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