Mail systems

I'm not quite sure what you are asking.

To set up an email account in Mail, Open Mail Preferences, Accounts, and click the Add ( + ) button. It will ask for the information needed to set up the account. It will try to do this automatically, but if it cannot, you will need to go to the PacBell website and search for email settings. You need to know the incoming server and outgoing (smtp) server.

If you have not set up any accounts in Mail, it may start by asking for your account information.

A lot of things (including iCloud) use an email address as a user name. It doesn't matter if the account still exists. Once the account is established using the email address as a username, it is merely a string of characters. You don't have to keep that email account active to keep using it as a username on a particula service. However, if they use that email to contact you, you may need to log into the service and change your primary email contact address.

You can have as many accounts as you wish. They can all be added to Mail and view them together, or independently. So, yes you can configure your pacbell account in Mail, and then add another free service, like iCloud, gmail, etc.

POP is Post Office Protocol. In that protocol, email is downloaded from the server to your computer. You can leave email on the server, but you normally don't get much storage space with a POP account.

IMAP is Internet Message Access Protocol. In this protocol, email is stored on the server and you can access it from multiple systems. The messages are synced in that if you read on one system, it will show as read on another system. While it is primarily designed to keep your messages on the server, you can have Mail download copies so that you have them when offline.

I think, from what I found googling, the pacbell.net account is only POP, so you don't have a choice.

The information you need to set up the account in Mail is listed here: http://www.emailserversettings.com/pacbell/pacbell-net

That checkbox merely restricts whether you can send email from nor account through the other account's server.

If it is an imap account, then you'll be able to use the folders.

That's irrelevant.

If you set it for an account, you restrict whether an email created on that account can be sent through another account's smtp server. If it can't contact that account's smtp server, it won't ask you to use another account's server instead.

If pacbell (Yahoo) provides the service, they might be able to auto-respond to let the sender know, but I don't think any of the services will do that for you.

You can keep the account alive for a while and create a rule in Mail to auto-respond to the sender to inform them of your change.

A HUGE problem with that is if one of your replies goes to someone who also has an auto-reply. You get in a big loop responding to one-another.

A better way would be just to send out an email to all of your contacts letting them know of the change.

Also, if you get emails from lists or companies, they usually are sent out with a dummy return address, so that response would go nowhere. You need to manage those manually and update your email with those companies on their website.

If you delete the account, Mail will delete all of the emails. You can export them into another location prior to deleting the account, which is what I do, or you can keep the account, but disable it checking and receiving mail (don't do this till you let your auto-respond rule run for a while).

Disabling it keeps the account and all its mail, but it hides them, so moving them to a new mailbox is better if you want to reference them.

At the bottom of the Mailbox list, click the Add ( + ) button and choose New Mailbox…

It will create a new folder in the Mailbox list and you can drag your emails from the inbox into that folder. If you already are moving emails into separate mailboxes, those will not be deleted when you delete the account.

I would also export my email to a safe location just in case anything happens you don't like. Just select the mailbox, then choose Export Mailbox… from the Mailbox menu. It will dump them into a folder in mbox format which you can import back into Mail if you need to.

There are quite a few others here who know Mail better than I, so maybe they'll chime in with some advice.

Ok, so you transfered all the emails into your Gmail inbox (or a folder somewhere)?

If yes, then it won't matter if the account is closed and you delete it from Mail. The messages were moved out of the inbox for pacbell account. Once that is done, they are safe from the account being closed or deleted.

Were you accessing the pacbell account on your iPhone and iPad?

If so, you can delete the account from those two devices, also.

You should set up your Gmail account on the iPhone and iPad.

I know there is setting somewhere to sync accounts, but I don't do that. I just have the IMAP accounts all set up independently on all devices (same ones as you). All that happens when you sync the accounts is it sets up the account settings the same on all devices. It does not sync the messages themselves. That is handle by the IMAP protocol.

Yes. Out of curiosity, did you set up your Gmail account as IMAP or POP, it allows both. I think Mail, and iPhone, iPad default to setting up IMAP, also.

You can have it on both with IMAP.

In Mail's Preferences, Advanced tab, set it to store messages locally.

There are also setting on the Mailbox Behaviors tab to control how long to keep sent, junk, trash, and drafts.