Does iCloud Make Pop Mail Act like IMAP?

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Level 1

76 points

Does iCloud Make Pop Mail Act like IMAP?

I have basically 1 main question, but 2 different scenarios I'm dealing with - one personally for my mail and the other for my boss.

Though a longtime Mac user, I am new to using Mountain Lion, iPhone, iPad and iCloud and historically I have always had numerous email accounts in Mac Mail set up as POP and countless elaborate folders that I file and keep all my old emails in for reference.

When buying my new iMac with ML, the one thing I have not yet done is turn on iCloud for mail.

If I am understanding how this works (before I do it and create a nightmare of duplication on my iPhone & iPad, etc), if I continue to create my email accounts as POP on my new ML iMac, with their various folders, etc., and turn on iCloud for mail, will it simply reflect on my other devices all the same email accounts and folders and in essence act like an IMAP account in that if you move or delete a piece of mail on one device it will do so on all the devices?

I not only need to sort this on my computer, but my boss'. She currently only uses gmail and has all these same devices but they are set up as IMAP and iCloud is turned on and she has mass duplication that is unbearable.

I am thinking it would be best for me to make her gmail account set up as a POP account and keep iCloud turned on and it will basically eliminate the gmail replication but still allow her devices to all be in sync and have action on one device be seen on all the others.

This would allow me to create folders for her on her computer in Mac Mail and not use the folder system in gmail at all.

Am I understanding this correctly? Hope I'm making sense!

Thanks so much!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on May 12, 2013 2:51 AM

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Answer 1

May 12, 2013 5:17 AM in response to lilskye

The iCloud email is IMAP only and has nothing to do with other email accounts. For the rest of the accounts like gmail, you can still set them up as POP. Mountain Lion is no different than other operating systems for creating email accounts. Setting up iCloud will have no affects on how your other mail accounts work and won't produce duplicate messages from other accounts.

Since you are talking about using more than one device, it's hard to imagine why you wouldn't want to set all accounts up as IMAP. It will keep all devices in sync. Sounds like your thinking on POP and IMAP are reversed.

With POP, each device will download the messages as new as long as it remains on the server, even if you delete it or move it on another device. I assume this is where you are referring to with duplicate messages.

WIth IMAP, whatever you do on one device reflects on the others. All messages are stored on the server mailboxes until they are moved or deleted from them. With imap, your device is actually reading messages stored on the server versus POP accounts where your device downloads the message to your computer.

You can create local folders on a computer to store messages for organization, or IMAP folders where they will be availabel on all devices, or you can use both types.

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Answer 2

lilskye Author

Level 1

76 points

May 12, 2013 7:12 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Hi Glenn:

Thanks for your response. I do understand what IMAP does, and I do purposely want all my emails POP so they are downloaded as localized on my computer.

But where the confusion is for me is iCloud.

There is "iCloud mail" which I DO NOT WANT. I don't need yet another mail account.

I mean "turning on" iCloud for your existing mail. The way you can turn it on for Calendar, Contacts etc. in Systme Preferences>iCloud> check Mail. Right now I do not have this checked on my iMac and I actually set up only one of my email accounts on my iPhone as a POP.

I was hoping that if I organize my email POP accounts the way I want on my iMac and file the various emails into whatever folders, that if I "turned on" iCloud, that it would reflect the same on my phone. If not, I will not add these accounts to my phone, as I don't want all that on my phone.

I like being able to glance at an email on the phone if I'm in town and be able to delete it, but still know its waiting for me to actually deal with and/or file when I get back to my main computer.

I monitor over 100 email accounts, some mine, but many for business clients and this is why I don't want my phone clogged with all this. But if turning on iCloud would mimic my iMac mail, then I could just file the emails on the Mac and know they are there in the phone (and I wouldn't delete them on the phone, as it would delete them on the Imac). Hope this is making sense!

In my boss' case, she has the reverse issue.

Someone in the UK set up her iPad, iPhone and laptop with Gmail - her only email account.

It is IMAP. They also turned on iCloud (not @icloud mail) and what she has is not only the duplicates caused by Gmail IMAP settings (which you have to remove in Gmail Settings so you don't have the dual Inbox and Gmail "All Mail" inbox on your devices, but to make things more complex for her, she has a Portuguese iPhone and a US iPhone (rather than just swapping SIM cards).

What I hear all day long is "why do I have all these duplicate emails" "where did everything go I was just looking at?" yadda yadda yadda.

She has her Inbox which has 2000 unread emails sitting in it and her "All Mail" with even more. Its a mess I want to clean up but don't want to do the wrong thing without fully understanding here what would happen.

I was hoping that "turning on" iCloud for your MacMail would actually reflect on your devices the same folders and accounts, in which case I could change her Gmail to a POP account and make folders for her and simply have them reflected on her devices once.

But is turning on iCloud in Syst. Pref for Mail doesn't do that, it won't work.

Thanks!!!!

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Answer 3

May 12, 2013 7:34 AM in response to lilskye

There is no such thing as "turning on iCloud for your existing mail." The iCloud "brand" means lots of things: It's a way to back up your iOS devices to the cloud, it's a way to sync documents between computers, and there's also an email account (which is the exact same thing as the old Mobile Me email account, and as the old .Mac email account).

From an email perspective, iCloud is an IMAP account that's hosted on the iCloud mail servers. That's it. It will not affect any of your other email accounts in any way at all. Turning on iCloud email just creates another account.

Gmail IMAP has all sorts of issues. It's totally nonstandard, and if you elect to export its labels to Mail so you can see them as folders, be careful. In particular, if you export the "all my mail" folder to Mail, then you will see duplicate messages. You'll see EVERY Gmail email in "all my mail" IN ADDITION to any other labels the email have applied. If you have 7 labels for a message, and you expose 7 gmail labels to Mail.app, you WILL see that email 7 times in Mail. That's the way Gmail IMAP support works, and there's nothing Apple can do about it.

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Answer 4

lilskye Author

Level 1

76 points

May 12, 2013 7:54 AM in response to William Lloyd

Thanks William. This is clearing things up for me. I didn't realize that turning on iCloud in System Preferences>iCLoud>mail would do nothing if I do not create an iCloud email account. I assumed it mirrored your mail accounts to your other devices. Glad I asked here!

Re: Gmail

I frankly loathe it and do not use ANY of its folder label functions. I make it POP on my computer so I can file the way I want. The only way to eliminate the duplicates I know of is to go into Settings in Gmail and uncheck the "show all mail" label/folder. Then it will disappear from duplicating on your MacMail.

Since my boss really wants to keep her Gmail (trying to talk her into just using an email I set up for her on our own domain!) do you know if I create folders ON HER MAC will they "appear" on her other synced devices? and appear in her gmail account? Then I could at least leave her as IMAP and file and maintain some order reflected on all the devices.

Thanks!

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Does iCloud Make Pop Mail Act like IMAP?