Gmail with POP and IMAP disabled... works?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Gmail with POP and IMAP disabled... works?

I'm a little bit confused and scared right now.

I've previously used Google Inbox instead of Apple's stock Mail app on my Mac and iOS devices. Out of curiosity, I wanted to try the stock Mail app again, which means re-adding the Gmail accounts on all my devices. (Google Inbox doesn't need the account, so I deleted it before.)

Everything seems to just work, which is great! However, I just checked the Gmail.com settings, and I have POP and IMAP disabled! At the same time, all my devices are fetching the mail just fine.

So which protocol is it using then? Since I don't understand what's going on, I'm a little bit concerned I'm doing something wrong. On the plus side, it doesn't seem to download and delete the mails off the server...

Please help me understand what's going on!

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.4), null

Posted on May 13, 2017 1:48 AM

Reply

Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

May 13, 2017 3:58 AM in response to daanodinot

This is webmail ( G mail account ) icon , & if you go to the settings in gmail and disable both POP account and IMAP account as you posted in your original question , problems will come in IMAP account , so don't do any changes in web mail , the settings are by default .Mail application is just configured to gmail services .

Now , what exactly is happening in your IMAP account ?

Reply

Answer 2

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

May 13, 2017 2:41 AM in response to daanodinot

You wrote : Everything seems to just work, which is great! However, I just checked the Gmail.com settings, and I have POP and IMAP disabled! At the same time, all my devices are fetching the mail just fine.

So which protocol is it using then?

Could be using Outlook , Eudora ....

Reply

Answer 3

daanodinot Author

Level 1

10 points

May 13, 2017 2:46 AM in response to tygb

I'm not sure what you mean. Those are just email clients right?

In any case, I believe Mail app is just using IMAP. Apparently, it ignores the setting in Gmail. I see this in the Mail settings on the Mac:

Reply

Answer 4

daanodinot Author

Level 1

10 points

May 13, 2017 11:10 AM in response to Csound1

I'm pretty sure it's using IMAP. When I right-click a mailbox in the navigation sidebar > Get Account Info > Summary, I can see that the incoming server is "imap.gmail.com" and outgoing server is "smtp.gmail.com". Also: the folders I've enabled IMAP for, are the ones that appear in the Mail app.

I've now actually enabled IMAP in Gmail, but it seems to make no difference whatsoever.

So conclusion: Apple's Mail apps seem to ignore the IMAP setting in Gmail and will use IMAP anyway.

Reply

Answer 5

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

May 13, 2017 11:16 AM in response to daanodinot

If they are using the IMAP server (imap.gmail.com) then they will use IMAP mail retrieval.

Reply

Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

May 13, 2017 4:08 AM in response to daanodinot

Open mail preferences and see which servers you are using, or look at your folders, if they are the same as the web mail you are using IMAP, if not you are using POP.

Reply

Answer 7

daanodinot Author

Level 1

10 points

May 13, 2017 11:27 AM in response to Csound1

Yes, although it's still weird that IMAP functions perfectly even when it's disabled in Gmail.

Reply

Answer 8

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

May 13, 2017 11:29 AM in response to daanodinot

Gmail is so non standard that nothing surprises me about anything it does anymore.

Reply