Change from pop3 to imap

To change to IMAP, you do need to delete the current POP3 account, then add the mail account again. By default, new mailboxes are now added as IMAP.

As for the question of saving your current emails. One option is to archive them, just to make sure you have a copy of them.

Archive emails in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Normally when you do add the new IMAP account, all of your emails that are stored on the mail providers server will be redownloaded. How many that are saved there are dependent on your mail provider, which is why it was recommended to contact them. Since the mail server that they use is different between a POP3 and IMAP account, the results do vary by the provider.

To be absolutely safe, make sure you have a full system backup in case you do want to revert your system to the previous state.

Husanbc wrote:

It's a different provider. We've been using it on mac mail as a pop3 account and now we want to change it to imap without losing the emails stored already in folders

Thats why I said to ask your mail provider or look at their support site, who better to get the answer from.

Husanbc wrote:

The last question of this nature was a few years ago, so I wanted to refresh the response. We have been accessing our email on our iMac for years using POP3. Since I want to access it also on iphones and ipads, I want to know how to change to IMAP, and also how not to lose the emails in the current folders on the iMac. Plus any other tips.

A good question to ask your mail provider or look at their help forum.

To help you out, we need some details ...

• Who, exactly, is the email provider?
• What email app are you using on your iMac? (Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, something else?) What version is it?
• How many email accounts do you have set up in the email app on your iMac? Are they all POP3?
• In the POP account settings for the account you want to "convert", do you have "Leave a copy of messages on server" enabled?
• Do you keep your downloaded POP messages in the default Inbox folder in the email app on your iMac?
• Do you use any folders (aka mailboxes) under "On My Mac" in your email app?

Husanbc wrote:

It's a question about Mac Mail

Yea and your using mac mail to install your mail account on it.

Are you using icloud or a different mail provider?

It might help if you told us who the provider is.