El Capitan iCloud POP Not IMAP, SSL Warning
I think it is fair to say that iCloud POP is a focus, if not the problem. for so many different support areas that I have honestly lost count over the last few months. Roughly two months after ElCapitan released, my new Mac Pro arrived from Apple.Com Online Store. My new Mac Pro is pretty much useless with any kind of email security. When OS X installs it sets up iCloud as a POP entity. Apple Support tells me its not supposed to do that, it should be IMAP. You would be surprised how any ways there are to install OS X in 2016. We've tried them all. Any IMAP or SSL email account I setup in Mail also defaults to POP. There are many fudging efforts we have tried to get around this, but they tend to result a warning, or setup the IMAP without warning, but provide email clients with Folder disasters.
The only way I can make an IMAP account on my own is to fudge the email address, like here@now.c instead of here@now.com, then Mail allows the IMAP option, but includes the Preferences Accounts red-ink warning "Unable to verify account name or password." If the email used in the new account form is not fudged, then my iCloud POP mac automatically makes a POP account, with pop.server.domain greyed out and strictly not editable. Apple Senior Advisors after long telephone waits have arranged Option-Click alternatives to side-step the address hack, but those Option-Click efforts only last as long as the telephone support calls.
At Stanford University, Configuring Apple Mail for IMAP Using SSL (Stanford IMAP SSL setup is the current international standard for email), It is clear that my new Mac with the new OS X has a significantly different, and as it turns out very problematic user interface.
It is suggested by Apple Support, that on the Preferences Accounts panel when Add a Mail Account appears, then fill in vitals and press Option when clicking Sign In. Do this instead of fudging the email address, I am advised. At least for now on my Mac the mouse has stopped changing to a pointer on hovering Sign In. And Option-Click blocks any mouse connection to the Sign In button, unless I am sharing my screen with an Apple Senior Advisor. Apple Support has nothing else to offer for now. OS X is obviously not IMAP friendly on my Mac. But we can select an IMAP option. Similar to the Stanford University functionality, for that older OS X Accounts interface.
Fudged IMAP and Option-Click IMAP, after being forced into OSX Mail, result in the biggest-ever IMAP Folder mess you can imagine! Any use of SSL also ends to the same local futility. On the ISP server side of things, the Apple Support background system tinkering has extended some send-receive from 20ms to about 500ms where the servers out there give up trying. Finally, Outlook Support from Microsoft disabled Outlook SSL. Outlook can no longer be configured for SSL on my Mac. And like Mail, the Outlook IMAP and SSL folders are a disaster anyway. Microsoft can only offer optimally insecure incoming over port 25. We think it is fair to assume that the problem is OS X, not the various email clients.
As a last ditch effort for now (any other support ideas out there?) we were going to do a standard Mail client configuration of the confused IMAP Folder name (will this remove extra folders of unknown origin?). Unfortunately, we cannot fix the IMAP Folder assignments as suggested at Stanford. When we hover menu Mailbox, and then Use This Mailbox As, all of the options are greyed out. So now, left here alone various incarnations of the dubious 2016 iCloud POP, I seem to be stuck pulling straws for which app to use with non-SSL. Do I use IMAP fudge, or retreat to POP and put up with the viruses and hacks?
Note that while truly doing their best to help, no one at Apple Support has anything further to offer for now. Does anyone in Apple Community have any idea how to fix Mac Pro 2016 SSL and/or IMAP email?
Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), MacBook Pro - iPhone6+ - Power PC