About IMAP and POP

        "If you'd like to understand better what the email protocol 'IMAP' is all about, here is an article that gives a good description of it," begins Jim Hamm with his trademark grin.  He acknowledges, "Understandably, you may not care. If the client you use for email works for you, and you're not inclined to change, then just bypass this article.

        "As an ancillary note, I use IMAP— and like it — but no longer use an email client, like Apple's Mail, on any of my computers or iOS devices. I use the web-based Gmail as my email client. That is, I log into Gmail on their server and do all my email reading, etc., there — not on my computer. I find this to be much simpler: all my emails are always coordinated and in-sync between all my devices, all of the emails I've ever received are permanently stored there (mighty handy to look up an old email from a long time ago), and I never have to worry or fuss with doing an update to my email program -- Google takes care of that for me — and I never have to tell anyone to 'hold sending any email to me while I travel'  — I've got plenty of storage space in Gmail." 

A Tip on Mail

        A tip on Mail comes from John Carter who informs us, "If you're using the Mail application to read and write email, and if your email protocol for the account is IMAP, you may have noticed that when you are creating a new message that quite a few copies of your unfinished (and finished) message shows up in the Trash. This is because you have an option set in Mail Preferences for you email account to store Draft messages on the server.

        "You can remedy this, and reduce the amount of Trash you get, by unsetting that option in Mail Preferences for that, and any, IMAP account.

        "The reason for the multiple copies of the incomplete messages is that Mail performs a save operation quite often (not a programmable feature). For any IMAP account, each save gets sent to the server, and the server then puts it in the Trash, and that Trash then gets sent back to Mail. So even if you just sit on a message before sending it, multiple copies of that draft will get sent to the server and then sent back to you as trash."  

        Thanks to John we know more than we did before!  (You did remember to click on the screen shot to enlarge it?  Good!) 

POP or IMAP: Which is Best for Email?

        POP or IMAP: which is best for your email? "This is a very nice article," John Carter goes on to elaborate, "with a few not-so-obvious exceptions but also not very important.  What is interesting is one of the related articles mentioned at the end:   6 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Desktop Email Clients In Favour Of Web-Based Options.
       Hold on!  Another email from John to add more info:  "Here's another related article that explains a bit more about the differences between POP & IMAP and also talks about the differences between an email app and webmail. There's a lot to take in with both of those articles." 

More on POP and IMAP

       John Carter passes on more info on the POP and IMAP question.  "The reason you are able to see your mail on the server after seeing them using Mac Mail is that the preferences set in Mac Mail are to NOT remove the message from the server after retrieving them.
        "In the snapshot below, I have my POP account preferences set to "remove copy from server after retrieving message” because in this case I have no interest to ever use webmail to access email for that account, and this option keeps the messages in that account on the server cleaned out.

        "In this case, once I retrieve a message using Mac Mail (or any other mail app with the preferences set as above) and then subsequently either delete it from the inbox in Mail or move it to another folder in Mail, the message is deleted from the inbox on the server. Because it is not a POP account, when moving a message from the inbox to another folder in Mail the message on the server is just deleted. All folders in Mail for a POP account are local to the computer. And that’s another reason I prefer not to use a POP account if I can help it.
        "(Note: the option to include - meaning to retrieve - when automatically checking for new messages is not checked because I have a filter for that account on that server to forward all incoming messages to another account on another server, after which they are automatically removed from the originating server. This may seem complicated, but it means I don’t have to check messages from multiple accounts.) For IMAP preferences, it’s also possible to keep messages on the server or not:

       "The only need to keep messages on the server is if you would ever need to get to your email using webmail. I notice that one option is to keep only those messages that I’ve read, which seems backwards to me. I would think the option should be to remove the messages I’ve read and keep the ones I haven’t read (retrieved but not read). That’s the only confusing part that I can see here."
        John concludes with, "The advantage of IMAP is that if you have two or more computers at home that you are using (like a laptop and a desktop) then both computers will always show exactly the same messages. Deleting a message on one computer deletes it from the other - unless the message you deleted was in a local folder. I never use local folders and I will use IMAP over POP (when possible) because I want my email on all my computers to be in perfect sync. That’s my personal choice. If you only have one computer then it doesn’t matter which protocol you use - although as mentioned in the previous note IMAP is more reliable and I think that eventually POP will go away."

Email: POP or IMAP

        What's better to use, POP or IMAP for email?  John Carter starts us off with this, "Google offers this explanation.
        "If you’re trying to decide between using POP and IMAP, we encourage you to use IMAP.
        "Unlike POP, IMAP offers two-way communication between your web Gmail and your email client. This means when you log in to Gmail using a web browser, actions you perform on email clients and mobile devices (ex: putting mail in a 'work' folder) will instantly and automatically appear in Gmail (ex: it will already have a 'work' label on that email the next time you sign in).
        "IMAP also provides a better method to access your mail from multiple devices. If you check your email at work, on your mobile phone, and again at home, IMAP ensures that new mail is accessible from any device at any given time.
        "Finally, IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through two-way syncing capabilities between your mail clients and your web Gmail."
        Still puzzling over the POP or IMAP I found that we are signed up for POP with Commspeed and that arrangement does keep email saved on their site, up to 95.37 MB.  Mail can be viewed and downloaded on either of our computers and still be viewed when we sign on to their website.
        An article at www.upperhost.com/pop3imap.htm explains some of the differences.  POP stands for Post Office Protocol, and works simply, sending the entire message to you. It works faster.  IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol, and it sends a copy to you while keeping a copy. It can sync messages, is slower but more redundant, and takes up more space.
        Any other pertinent information that you've discovered, PMUG members?

IMAP or POP?

       "You may not have ever wondered, or even cared, what is the difference between IMAP and POP protocols for your email system. But, if you really want to know, here is a lengthy article explaining the nuances of both systems," Jim Hamm informs us.
       "I'm now using IMAP in my email programs and, overall, like it, after I got used to it. It seems Apple now automatically uses IMAP for any mobile devices, or a Mac, you purchase from them when setting up an email program. That's why/how I switched from POP to IMAP some time ago after purchasing an iPad 2. After switching, I noticed on my Mac that it takes a longer time to shut down the Mail program than it does other programs, and I wondered why. Here is a quote from the article that explains why: 'It's not uncommon for Mail to take a long time to quit. It looks like nothing is happening, but in fact it's trying (clearly, not hard enough) to log out of certain accounts, finish syncing mailboxes, or do other last-minute cleanup tasks such as deleting old messages.'
       "If, like me, your eyes tend to glaze over towards the end of the article, I'll understand why. But, you'll be so much better informed," grins Jim.

Gmail Solution is Posted

Having a problem with Gmail?  Never fear, John Carter to the rescue.  John has been accepted as a writer for the popular WikiHow, and he introduces his topic, "I posted an article here that goes into some detail about working with a Gmail IMAP account in Mail. It discusses a major issue regarding the ALL MAIL mailbox wherein you might be thinking that, try as hard as you can, you can’t delete a message from that mailbox, or that after deleting a message from another mailbox it still shows up in All Mail. Don’t worry about it. There is a solution."