Changing to IMAP From POP3

[#1]

@markhawkin 

I asked because an online guide suggests backing up (exporting) your Outlook data to an external drive to make sure you lose nothing when you change to IMAP from POP3. But I don't see how you can lose messages that are already in your Outlook folders.
IMAP enables one to access the PlusNet mailbox through several devices. The only downside I see is that the messages remain on the server and you have to delete them manually on Webmail to avoid upsetting the ISP.

[#2]

@redsox9 

I have asked the mods to split of your tangential question to a separate thread.

Your question is worthy of its own discussion, rather than being a potential distraction to @Cosworth64 's issue ... which could be similar to your own, being discussed elsewhere.

I have done POP3 to IMAP switches before, which I will discuss in the separate thread when created by the mods.

[#3]

Moderator's note:
Thread moved to it's own topic and re-titled

[#4]

@redsox9 

It is not possible to change an existing POP3 configuration to IMAP but you can change the operation to IMAP, along side 'freezing' the existing POP3 configuration.  With Outlook this is a multi-stage process...

1. Stop the POP3 configuration accessing the email service
2. Configure an IMAP connection to the mailbox
3. Consider moving some of the email received by the POP3 configuration to IMAP
4. Establish proper controlled archiving practices

Stop the POP3 service accessing email...

1. Under Send / Receive
2. Under Send/Receive Groups - select Define Send/Receive groups (at the very bottom)
3. Select All Accounts
4. In the left panel, select the email account configured as POP3
5. UNTICK Include the selected account in this group
6. Click OK
7. Click Close

Configure an IMAP connection to the mailbox

1. Outlook does not permit the creation of two accounts for the same email address, so some skulduggery is required...
   1. If the mail account is using a HOSTED DOMAIN for the email address, go into account settings and change the account details to be the underlaying Plusnet email address
   2. If the mail account is using a @account.plus.com address change the XXXX@ to YYYY@
2. Create an IMAP email account using the required email address
3. Creating the IMAP configuration should do a send and receive, check that these work, notably check that the sent item was saved in the sent items folder ON THE SERVER

It does not matter that the email address on the POP3 configuration is wrong, as you will not be using it, but you will still have access to the previously down loaded emails.

If you want to have access to previously sent emails in the new configuration, drag them from the POP3 sent items folder (only stored locally), drag and drop them into the IMAP sent items folder.  They will then also be available in webmail or any other IMAP client you are using.

Use the Outlook archiving tools to establish effective back up with YOU control.  Most folks keep far too much trash, a good deal of it arising out of using email as a document sharing service, rather than doing such via cloud storage services.

HTH.

[#5]

Very timely guide. More people are using several devices - desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets - to access emails.  With IMAP,  messages are left on the server for all of them.

[#6]

@Townman  @Baldrick1 

Small point but shouldn't "Changing from POP3 to IMAP" be a better title?

[#7]

@redsox9 

Thank you, my error.  I have amended the title.

[#8]

One other point (and probably my omission).

When suggesting IMAP I hadn't really thought about Plusnet's mailbox size limits.

My Plusnet mailbox isn't my main address and thus keeping it limited in size isn't a problem.

I agree with others that using Outlooks archiving tools (and keeping spare copies of the resulting files somewhere safe) is a jolly good idea.

Of all the free options (and I use a number) I consider Microsoft's free email services the best.

If you have a Windows PC you probably have an account. Apples iCloud isn't bad either.

[#9]

Hello,

I hope this is not a stupid question! I want to change from a recent version of Outlook as I hate the program. The old one was fine!

 Is it possible to simply create a new IMAP account in, say Thunderbird when my existing account in Outlook is a Pop3 account? Or do I have to go through a conversion process?

[#10]

Not a stupid question at all.

The Plusnet mail server will accept both IMAP and POP3 requests and they can be from different devices or mail applications.

You will need to stop Outlook (using POP3) from deleting mail from the server and Thunderbird will then collect (a copy of) the mail from Plusnet.

The potential problem is that, as I recall, there are fairly small limits on the size of a mailbox with Plusnet.

If you intend to discontinue use of Outlook there is some form of export of your mail archive into a form readable by Thunderbird needed.

Personally I used an older version of Outlook (which stopped working with GMail and others), tried Thunderbird but didn't get on with it, then moved to the version of Outlook within Office 2021 which has been fine with multiple email accounts for me.

[#11]

---

@Stevedd wrote:

I hope this is not a stupid question! I want to change from a recent version of Outlook as I hate the program. The old one was fine!

---

A bit back I updated my Microsoft Offive suite and found myself confronted by the latest version of Outlook, which I hated.

However, I did a thorough search through the contents of the Office Files and found hidden in all the other stuff, a classic version of Outlook, which works fine.

[#12]

The free version of outlook is indeed grim.  Proper outlook as ships with a Microsoft365 subscription is excellent and very much like Outlook always was.

You do not need to convert as such, but you do need to do some technical fiddling.  A POP3 client holds your emails LOCALLY in an email folder stored solely on YOUR computer.  The inbox might be configured to leave mail on the server, but everything you’ve sent, stuff you’ve moved to folders is only held on that device.

Where it is intended to access the same mailbox from several devices, POP3 and IMAP ought not to be mixed, doing so just causes confusion.

To change from using POP3 to IMAP  using the same client, see the advice above.

To do this with a different client, just stop the existing client from downloading email by whatever means - supply a bad password.

Then configure and IMAP account in your chosen email client.  You then need to find the means to transfer the email history from Outlook to the new client AS A LOCAL email store.  Remember IMAP keeps everything on the server so that it’s accessible on other devices / webmail.

plus.com has a 1GB email store … my business allocated 250MB stores which took for ever to fill … but we were not using email as a document / photograph store and share service.

eM client is worth a good look, IIRC it has excellent import from outlook tools.

[#13]

"The free version of outlook is indeed grim.  Proper outlook as ships with a Microsoft365 subscription is excellent and very much like Outlook always was."

On my work laptop, with an M365 E5 licence, I have Outlook which works very well.  It has a switch to "Try the new Outlook", which I did quite a while ago.  That version was a massive step back and one I reversed in days!