Why won't Mail create a POP account?

Question

Why won't Mail create a POP account?

Currently using Mail 4.6 on 10.6.8

I just tried to convert a new Gmail account to POP. Have done the Google side of it, and created a new account in Mail. But after the first dialogue, where I entered Description, email address and password, Mail sailed off and created an IMAP account. I swear in earlier versions of Mail there was a second screen where you could specify what type of account you wanted?

On the third try, I just let it go ahead, but in 'Account Information' I changed the server from imap.gmail.com to pop.gmail.com - and my mail seems to be coming through, even though Mail Preferences still has it listed as an IMAP account and gives me a warning message every time I launch Mail, that it "can't verify pop.gmail.com and it might only be pretending to be that server, do you still wish to continue" etc etc.

Should I be bothered, or just be thankful that the email is coming through?

iMac Core i5 12GB RAM-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 1, 2015 10:21 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Jun 2, 2015 8:34 AM in response to christopher rigby1

I swear in earlier versions of Mail there was a second screen where you could specify what type of account you wanted?

You hold the Option key down, and the Create button will change.

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 2, 2015 8:53 AM in response to Lanny

Thanks Lanny. I did find that out since I posted yesterday, so I decided to delete the Mail account and start again using the Option key. Unfortunately none of the emails are now coming through, and the account is greyed out on the list. So I deleted again, and set up the same as yesterday, but still no emails have come through (they're still there online in Gmail). 😟

Reply

Answer 3

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Jun 2, 2015 11:29 AM in response to christopher rigby1

Check on the Gmail web site that the IMAP option isn't selected.

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 2, 2015 1:40 PM in response to Lanny

It isn't.

Reply

Answer 5

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Jun 2, 2015 3:11 PM in response to christopher rigby1

Note that deleting mail accounts doesn't remove the SMTP account configurations. That has to be done before the last account is removed.

Reply

Answer 6

Jun 3, 2015 1:18 AM in response to Lanny

I finally got it working...

First I changed the port in Mail to POP (995). All that happened was the account was no longer greyed out. Out of curiosity, I clicked the little exclamation mark by its name and got a message that the account was not enabled for IMAP according to the server.

So second, I went to my Gmail account online and discovered you could have it as both POP and IMAP, so I enabled IMAP as well as POP. However, this didn't change anything either.

So finally, I changed the port back to IMAP in Mail (993) and now I have my emails downloaded to the Mail account! It looks as though it is now fully IMAP rather than POP, but as long as the effect on Mail is the same - i.e. the messages are downloaded - I don't really care.

Reply