I want to sync my 3rd party email to all of my MACs. If i delete an email on one device i would like it to delete on all the others.

I wanted to post an update to let you know you can configure Comcast e mail accounts as IMAP. I found an great article/instruction online that explains the process in detail. Basically, you have to submit a request to Comcast to migrate your Comcast POP accounts to their IMAP servers. This is not something that Comcast is widely advertising but it is possible to do. You will need your Comcast account user name and password to submit the request. I submitted the request and got an immediate response that my user account was migrated to the Comcast IMAP servers. I setup Comcast as IMAP on my mac mini, MBP both running the latest updates of Mavericks and on my iPhone 5 running iOS7. NOT SURE IF THIS WILL WORK WITH iOS8 and YOSEMITE but it is working well with iOS7 and Mavericks.

Here are the links to the article and the Comcast IMAP request page:

http://www.tuaw.com/2013/11/18/how-to-set-up-comcast-imap-email-on-ios-7-os-x-ma vericks/

https://xcsignup.comcast.net/onboardingapps/imap

The only thing I would add to the instructions in the article would be that once you are 100% sure the IMAP setup is working properly you should manage the Mail accounts and edit the SMTP server list, deleting the old Comcast POP account and outgoing server setup. Also be sure to follow the instructions relating to setting up the correct incoming/outgoing server ports.

Advanced settings was the fix. Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > selected the e mail account > selected Account (e mail address) again > Advanced > under Mailbox Behaviors selected "Deleted Mailbox" > then you see "On My Phone" and "On The Server" options. I had Trash On My Phone selected, switched it to Trash On The Server, saved settings, and now when I receive new emails to the IMAP e mail in question I don't get the Can't Move This Message to Trash error and if I delete from the phone it is deleting on MBP/MacMini. I now realize that the error message seemed to be coming from the IMAP server not my phone. Anyway, thanks for all the help, I learned a lot on this one. I work in Audio Video Integration and am obviously constantly interfacing with Apple iOS products so there is always something new to learn.

iCloud will only sync iCloud email. What you want requires either an IMAP or Exchange account. POP/POP3 accounts won't do this. You would have to either configure your existing account as an IMAP account if the provider supports this, or switch to another provider such as iCloud email, Gmail, etc.

sjc47 wrote:

I was also wondering why iCloud doesn't delete e mail across all devices when I delete it on one device.

It does, provided it is an iCloud email account (which is an IMAP account). Email from non-iCloud email accounts such as Comcast, etc. is entirely separate and is not managed in any way by iCloud.

sjc47 wrote:

I am also confused by the discussion that POP accounts don't sync using iCloud as I have been using my Comcast POP account as well as several other POP e mail accounts and I receive e mails from all these accounts across all my devices without issue (Mac Mini, MacBookPro 13, iPhone5).

As mentioned, your non-iCloud POP accounts are entirely separate email accounts and are not managed by iCloud. You are receiving email from your POP accounts on all your devices because you have the accounts set up on all your devices; but the email is being sent from your other email providers such as Comcast, not by iCloud.

sjc47 wrote:

When you say POP accounts don't sync are you all referring to the deleting of e mails which was one of the subjects of the original post or is it something else I'm missing?

Unlike IMAP accounts, POP/POP3 accounts only deliver email to your devices. Any subsequent changes that you make an email on any of your devices such as deleting a message, marking it as read, etc., will not be synced to your other devices. This will give you a little more information on the difference: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/getting-gmail-anywhere-imap-versus-pop.htm l.

Don't confuse iCloud with Mail as a client for your other email accounts. iCloud is an account, not a mail client. If you setup the other email accounts in Mail as IMAP accounts then any email deleted in Mail on your device will be deleted for all devices.

You're welcome. That's not quite right. iCloud will not sync non-iCloud accounts no matter how they are set up, but is you configure them as IMAP accounts any changes to messages in the accounts on one device will be reflected on other devices signed into the same email accounts. In other words, this type of syncing is a basic function of an IMAP account and iCloud is not required. The syncing is handled by each of the other email providers, not Apple.

THe withe ay this works is that as you make a change to a message the change is updated on the provider's server. She your other devices connect to the server they read the change and mKe the corresponding change to the same message on the new device, keeping it in sync with the first device.

Yes. Once it's in your iCloud email, it's managed as any other IMAP account. It arrives in your inbox like any other message in your iCloud inbox. If you read it, delete it, move it to a folder, etc., those changes will be reflected on your other devices/computers just like any other iCloud message.

To set this up, follow the first 5 steps in this article: https://comcasthelp.transfermyemail.com/entries/24424177-Automatically-forward-e mail-from-Comcast. It looks like step 4 is now called "Email & Voice Settings".

If you have accounts that do not offer an IMAP option. Gmail can fetch up to 5 POP accounts. You would then download as IMAP. You can assign a label (folder) so you can keep the emails separate. It's a bit tricky when replying using the old address.

You're welcome. Just a word of caution... if you reply to an email from your Comcast account that has been forwarded to your iCloud account and want the reply to be sent from your Comcast address, you'll need to manually select this from the From drop-down list just below the Subject line. Otherwise it will, by default, be sent from your iCloud address (which may confuse the recipient if they don't know it).

It sounds like it's working properly on the Mac mini (deleted message also deletes it from your phone), but it is not working properly on your phone. I would delete the account from your phone, then add it back to see if that fixes things.

On my iPhone, I deleted and reinstalled the e mail account I'm using as a test and here are the results. Today I'm testing this with my iPhone5 and MBP. BTW, I appreciate your input on this as the subject has sort of strayed from general syncing to an iPhone related quirk and I don't want to upset the community forum! 😁

Using the test IMAP e mail account, when I send e mail to this account it is received across all devices (MacMini, MBP, and iPhone5) as expected.

If I open the e mail on my MBP I do notice that it also becomes marked as read on my iPhone, and vice versa so that sync is happening.

If I delete a read e mail message from either my MBP or MacMini the message does eventually get deleted from the iPhone (takes about 30 seconds or so) with nothing more than pressing the delete icon in Mail.

HERE IS THE ISSUE:

If I open a new message on my iPhone it does get marked as read on the MBP but when I press the TRASH icon I get the message that, "The message could not be moved to mailbox TRASH", however, the message is removed from the inbox on the iPhone. If I go into Accounts (directly below the list of mailboxes) > choose the email account in question > select Inbox > there is the message that I tried to move to Trash. I have to open that message > select the Folder icon to Move This Message to a New Mailbox > and then move it to the Deleted Messages folder. Once I've done this on the iPhone then the message does get deleted from the MBP inbox and ends up in the MBP Trash as you would expect, ditto on the MacMini. Also, the other test message that I deleted from the MBP, and that was deleted on the iPhone, also showed up in the Deleted Messages folder on the iPhone which probably makes sense. So am I crazy or just missing a setting related to deletion of messages on the iPhone!??

Thanks for your input.

You might try going to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars on your phone, tap the email account in question, navigate to the Advanced settings (often by tapping Account, then Advanced), then see if there is a Mailbox Behaviors section that includes a setting for Deleted Mailbox (or similar), then make sure the Deleted Mailbox is set to Deleted Messages.

Hi, I just did a search and found this post. I was also wondering why iCloud doesn't delete e mail across all devices when I delete it on one device. However, I am also confused by the discussion that POP accounts don't sync using iCloud as I have been using my Comcast POP account as well as several other POP e mail accounts and I receive e mails from all these accounts across all my devices without issue (Mac Mini, MacBookPro 13, iPhone5). When you say POP accounts don't sync are you all referring to the deleting of e mails which was one of the subjects of the original post or is it something else I'm missing? Thank you for your assistance.

Thank you, that makes sense that I have all e mail accounts setup on all devices. So are you saying that other than Comcast, if I were able to set up my other e mail accounts as IMAP then they would sync with iCloud so if I delete and e mail on my phone it will delete on my Mac Mini, etc. Thank you for the link. I have a Gmail account but rarely use it.

You're welcome. (I used to have a Comcast account years ago too. I decided to set up email forwarding to my iCloud account in order to take advantage of IMAP and told my contacts to stop using the Comcast address.)