Mail question POP 3 protocol

Question

Mail question POP 3 protocol

my email account which has been POP 3 protocol for ten+ years and when I downloaded emails, they deleted from the server, as I had set up. The email provider required a more secure password at signing that required a delete of the account and re-add and was added back as a POP 3 like before (not the IMAP protocol). Now when I download emails, they are not deleting from the server. In the accounts preferences there was a place where that could be selected and enabled. Now I cannot find that choice in Mail or accounts. My desktop computer is an iMac running Hi-Sierra. Any ideas?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 22, 2021 1:19 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobTheFisherman

Level 10

81,553 points

Dec 22, 2021 3:22 PM in response to Charles Palenz

An email account can't simultaneously be POP and IMAP. Choose one protocol, configure your email account server to use that protocol. Configure your email client on all your devices to use that protocol.

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Answer 2

Dec 23, 2021 10:10 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

BobTheFisherman:

I am marking you as Helpful, not because you were right, but because following your suggestion lead me to the solution, and was beneficial. Changing iPhone to POP did not produce the desired "delete from the server" on the desktop. When looking at MAIL "accounts" and at "preferences" produce different screens and details of the account and for unexplained reasons I failed to notice that by going to Mail preferences, account information, general, in plain sight is the pull-down menu to select the time when the downloaded email is to be deleted from the server. I kept going to the server settings tab without looking at General. When I reloaded the POP account, the default value is not to remove from the server immediately. See attached image. I can choose one day, one week, one month, or when I remove from inbox. For me the value is that a message on my phone that I may want to reply or read later can be deleted from the phone and it will be available on my desktop. And if I have seen the email on the desktop, I will not see on the phone later. Others may have different needs, or make different server settings, but that is mine for this account. Thank you. Note: IMAP does not have these choices.

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Answer 3

Dec 22, 2021 1:26 PM in response to Charles Palenz

One reason: the account was re-established as IMAP and not POP.

Apple has been preferring IMAP for a while, if both are available.

Another: the mail server has been configured to disable the POP download.

As an alternative, I’ve been using mail rules to download and file and sort stuff for a while, which works fine with IMAP, or with POP not set to auto-download.

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Answer 4

Dec 22, 2021 2:21 PM in response to MrHoffman

The Mail preferences (desktop computer) show "Incoming mail server (POP)" has the host name showing as "pop: (provider) .net" and no place to select "delete incoming mail from server" after downloading.

My iPhone uses IMAP and downloads files previously deleted by my desktop and how I know the desktop using POP is not deleting the server. Maybe I need to change the phone to POP but that seems like it should not matter if already deleted by the desktop computer using POP protocol. Maybe, because the phone account was loaded as IMAP before the desktop being loaded as POP, that the server prioritizes and doesn't let the pop delete. While reloading the account in another device sequence is a possible solution, maybe someone has the understanding.

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