POP Versus IMAP for Using Postbox Email Client

Admin | Email Backup Technology | 3 minutes read | Last updated on February 8th, 2023,

POP and IMAP both are commonly used email systems and the common difference in these two email systems are where they store your email data and the process of folders sync.

The question is should we use POP for Postbox or is the IMAP is a better email managing system?

So, in this article, I am trying to explain both POP and IMAP with Postbox so that you can better understand your work with your email client.

Overview of POP and IMAP

POP: When starting with the working or storing process of POP, POP stores its data in a local folder type location, it can be your mobile devices or your computer’s hard drive. This makes it more convenient for the user to find their data on the local storage. For the same reason, POP is not much secure as the data loss circumstances are very high in this. Circumstances like system errors, hard drive failures, computer theft, etc. Also, you may not get access to one device’s data from another device folder.

IMAP: IMAP is the most recommended email system, when any user of multiple devices wants to choose from IMAP or POP, IMAP is the best and most reliable solution. There are many advantages with IMAP such as it saves your email data on your provider’s servers. If the email data you have is of utmost importance to you then go with IMAP. If the email files you are dealing with are stored at different locations say mobile, desktop, or computer then the IMAP option is best for you. IMAP automatically syncs all the email files from time to time.

Postbox with IMAP Account

All Postbox mailboxes reflect in the IMAP email system or provider’s server with complete email data. There is no need to change any setting in the IMAP account, Postbox updates every required email settings itself.

Every activity of the Postbox account will be shown in the IMAP server as it is, if you delete any mailbox or single email file it will be removed from the server automatically. This effect is the same with the renaming of folders or files.

Postbox with POP Account

POP account synchronizes Postbox email inbox automatically, as I mentioned above the POP email system is completely based on local storage so the created folders on other devices in the same account will not reflect in the POP account. You can only view those folders and files in your Postbox account.

Backup Postbox Emails from POP to IMAP Email System

As the above discussion, it is now clear for all users of a Postbox email client that the IMAP email system is the server to manage email data. So, if you want to start the use of the IMAP instead of POP then you can follow the below steps:

  1. Create an account in any free IMAP-based email client like Gmail.
  2. Then, you need to set up this newly created account in Postbox.
  3. Now, to backup emails from the POP email system, create folders.

After this, you have two different methods to conclude your email backing up process:

Contextual Menu Copy Method:

  1. Choose the POP account and then select all those items which you want to back up in the IMAP email system
  2. Open the contextual menu screen by right-clicking on the selected emails.
  3. Click on the Copy To option and select the path from IMAP where all your selected data will be moved.
  4. Repeat these steps again for the next mailbox of the POP email system and save all your emails on an IMAP-based email client.

Drag n Drop Method:

  1. To start the process, you need to create a Group Account and then drag your both accounts IMAP and POP.
  2. Now, you can view the mailboxes of both accounts in a unified view.
  3. From the POP selected POP folder, drag the required emails into the IMAP folder.

By this process, you can easily get your all POP data into the IMAP email system with a complete database.

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