Help switching from POP to IMAP

Question

Level 4

1,897 points

Help switching from POP to IMAP

Hi,

I need help switching at least one (or several) Mail account from POP to IMAP. I don't want to lose any of my old emails.

I've had a gmail email account since the days when you had to have an invitation. At the time I only had a desktop Mac and had all my mail as POP. My gmail settings say I have had "POP since 2009"... or something like that.

Meanwhile, I joined the 21st Century with an iPhone 4 (Verizon 2011) and an iPad 3 (2012) and have IMAP. I also have an old ISP account that I never use for connecting to the net but that has old POP accounts from the 1990s.

I'm nervous about trying to switch my MacBookPro and PowerBook Mail clients over to IMAP. I think I have the idea, but it would be great if someone can help me with step by step advice.

This is what I think I should do.

1. Create a backup of the POP files in the ~/library/Mail folder for the target account i.e. POP-targetaccount@gmail.com@pop.gmail.com

2. Save the backup files to multiple places, e.g. hard disk, usb drive, etc.

3. Delete the mailbox from Mail

4. Change the account to IMAP and all of the settings.

5. Let the Mail client try to sync.

Can anyone provide more specific ideas?

thanks in advance

MBP 13 2.53gHZ/4mb RAM, PB G4 12, 1gHZ/768 mb RAM, OS X.3.9, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Touch 2 gen, Shuffle 1 gen, Nano 2 gen, PM7300/200 416 mb RAM OS

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 8:52 PM

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Answer 1

seventy one

Level 7

27,442 points

Oct 25, 2013 12:17 AM in response to Marlinespike

Why have you not talked to your service provider (at least you haven't mentioned doing so)? Most are very approachable and I have always been impressed by the patience shown by mine.

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Answer 2

Oct 25, 2013 9:50 AM in response to Marlinespike

You cannot "change the account to IMAP". Create a new account:

Move all messages to "On My Mac" mailboxes. Don't leave anything in the account-specific mailboxes, Inbox and Sent.
Create a new IMAP account.
Deactivate the POP account: Preferences > Accounts > Account Information; uncheck "Enable this account".

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Answer 3

Marlinespike Author

Level 4

1,897 points

Oct 27, 2013 8:31 AM in response to Jeffrey Jones2

Thanks, I will try that method.

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,591 points

Oct 27, 2013 11:52 AM in response to Marlinespike

Gmail Settings

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Answer 5

Marlinespike Author

Level 4

1,897 points

Nov 9, 2013 9:52 AM in response to Jeffrey Jones2

hi Jeffrey,

Can you tell me specifically how to move the mail to the On my Mac folders?

I was going to try this today, and realized I don't know how to move mail to "On My Mac". the last time I cancelled a POP account I did this, and those old mail folders are still there, but I have no idea how I did that. I can't find advanced search for the Apple knowledge base and the regular search isn't showing instructions. 😟

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

684,591 points

Nov 10, 2013 7:24 AM in response to Marlinespike

You drag and drop the e-mail where you want it.

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Answer 7

Marlinespike Author

Level 4

1,897 points

Nov 12, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Marlinespike

I went over to the Apple store yesterday. The "geniouses" could not tell me how to back up the POP account to On My Mac. They (2 of them) couldn't tell me how to get the advanced search to the knowledge base articles. 😟

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Answer 8

Nov 13, 2013 8:28 AM in response to Marlinespike

As Eric said, move messages by drag and drop: For example, open the POP account Inbox, Select All, drag and drop into an On-My-Mac mailbox in the sidebar. If you need to create a new mailbox, Mailbox > New Mailbox…; choose "On My Mac" for the location.

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Answer 9

Bici

Level 1

86 points

Jan 8, 2014 1:31 PM in response to Jeffrey Jones2

I just now did it this way.

created a new account and configured it to be IMAP account. I named mine close to the old account so it would be right after it in my list of accounts.
once the account is created, highlight all the old messages in the inbox of the OLD account and drag them over top of the NEW account. Messages are copied over.
repeat for Outgoing folder: Highlight from OLD outgoing messages and drag to NEW outgoing if you wish, as well as the Drafts folder if you have any.
After I did this I logged onto the server via webmail interface and voila all messages were therein! Both Incoming and Outgoing (sent)

After verifying that all is fine I disabled the old account (Mail Preferences)

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Answer 10

May 24, 2014 11:04 PM in response to Bici

I'm using Mail v 7.2. I have tried to create a new account with my existing email address and attemping to use the IMAP protocol. I am prevented from continuing further because I get the error message "This account is already in use." Alternatively, if I set up the new account, then Mail defaults back to pre-existing account before I've had a chance to select IMAP over POP3.

Is there any way round this issue?

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Answer 11

Eric Root

Level 10

684,591 points

May 25, 2014 9:24 AM in response to maoratia100

Try going to System Preferences/Internet Accounts and deleting the account there. Then try setting up the new account.

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Answer 12

Bici

Level 1

86 points

May 25, 2014 10:38 AM in response to maoratia100

IF you don't want to keep a record of your past emails deleting the account as Eric suggests is one option.

But if you want to keep your old emails and sync them via imap then you need to keep the old mail account active until you create the new one. I have done this exact same thing on many occasions.

Which email account are you wishing to create an imap for? Your apple email or some other email account ?

PS in the descrtion filed make sure you have unquie names.

ie. Myaccount and MyaccountNEW

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