HT2500: Mac Basics: Mail (Mac OS X v10.6 and earlier)

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mvbags

Q: email setup for multiple devices of same user

I am trying to set up email on my imac, iphone4, and mac book so that I can access and manipulate or delete emails on one device without affecting the email on the others.  I do not know if I use pop on my main machine, imap on macbook and mobile.my.email on the phone.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 18, 2012 2:03 PM

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Q: email setup for multiple devices of same user

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  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Mar 18, 2012 2:21 PM in response to mvbags
    Level 6 (15,637 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 18, 2012 2:21 PM in response to mvbags

    While you can share access to a mail server from multiple clients (that's the default set-up for folks with multiple clients), your actions conducted from one client will effect what the other clients see.

     

    If you're downloading mail messages from the server to storage on one client, then the other clients won't then have access to those messages.  If you delete a message from the server, the other clients will no longer find the message on the server.

     

    If you want these clients to be completely independent, then you'll need to set up several different users, and use one on each client.

     

    POP is a comparatively poor choice here as that typically downloads messages from the server to the client.

     

    Choosing IMAP is "newer" than POP, and usually a better choice.

     

    For your outbound mail, use of the submission port (TCP 587) is recommended.  Don't use SMTP port 25.

     

    You're going to get to learn a little more about this stuff including about your current configurations, or you'll want to find somebody that can assist you with setting this up in your environment - the POP or IMAP and mail submission set-up is often specific to a particular mail server. Apple's Mail Setup Assistant might be helpful.