First designed in 1986, IMAP has been around almost as long as I have, and yet it’s still treated with suspicion by many users and is seen as a ‘new’ or ‘advanced’ way of accessing email; while POP3 is seen as the ‘safe’ option. Many users don’t seem to know what IMAP is or how they should use it – yet it’s actually the answer to many of the little niggles that users have when it comes to email.
So, here’s why we love IMAP:-
Keep your messages on the server
Seamless multi-device sync
Choose what you download
On-server folders
Check for new messages quickly
So, how do you connect to an IMAP mail server? With the same software that you’re already using for POP3 – just select ‘IMAP’ when setting up your account in Outlook, Thunderbird, Mac Mail, on your phone or tablet, and enter the same details that you’d use for POP3 – server name, username and password, then you’re good to go!
So, there you go. IMAP’s not scary, and not only for ‘advanced users’ – everyone who uses email for their day-to-day communication can make it do more with IMAP.
The main issue that I find users mentioning is that they want to keep historic emails and so ultimately find themselves running out of space.
Moving the message to a local folder on the client would be the solution but people just don’t want to be bothered sometimes! ARRRGH! 🙂
IMAP has proven to be extremely useful for me.
It’s great to be able to manage all my emails from my computer, phone or tablet, without having some emails on one and not on the other, etc. Saves time, confusion and once it’s set up, it just works smoothly.
I usually tell me customers to use POP for a PC so they can keep a local backup of their mails and IMAP on their phones!
Yep, i find the space an issue too, and the 400mb on Heart’s standard boxes isn’t really much space when customers are receiving attachments of photo’s etc. I either ask them to upgrade to a premium box if using IMAP or i otherwise tell them to use pop with the leave on server for 20days (or similar).
Thanks for pointing this out.And how to use it.I spent hours scouring your website to find out how to configure IMAP, I use it a lot with other servers as it solves the issue of how to have the same emails in more than 2 places..I found out by trial & error.Could you post how to set up IMAP in the help section (forgive me if in the interim you have done so).
Hi Noel,
There are lots of articles about IMAP in our support database: https://customer.heartinternet.uk/manage/support.cgi
I’ve just switched to IMAP from POP having read the above but have jammed my mailbox very quickly. I did this because I have added for the 1st time an iPad and iPhone so it seemed right – now I’m not so sure!
Any ideas would be appreciated – I don’t really want to increase my mailbox size.
Thanks anybody with ideas.
Hi David,
If you raise a ticket with our support team they’ll be able to take a look at this for you.
Cheers,
Rob