I Hate IMAP -- How do I set up a POP3 account in Sierra?

Question

I Hate IMAP -- How do I set up a POP3 account in Sierra?

I hate IMAP -- IMAP stores all of my email on the **** server which is now running out of space. I do not want to save my mail on the server Sam I Am! I do not want to use IMAP with a fish or in a dish! I want my email on my computer! Sam I am! I do not want to use web email in a train or in a plane. I do not want to use web email at all. Nos sir Sam I Am!

Yes - I am very frustrated. I just spent some time with my ISP support staff which threw up their hands and told me to call Apple Tech Support which is unavailable until a time of their convenience hours from now. I have been a Mac user since 1990. I am a stock holder. But, I hate you Tim Cook! You are trashing the company!

As I am unlikely to get help from the ill-named "geniuses" at Apple, does anyone have an idea on how to coerce mail to work properly? I tried the trick of the faulty domain name to force it to open a real configuration screen. I put in all the correct information. The ISP tech support person put in all of the correct information. However, I am still getting an "Unable to verify account name or password" error message. Yes, the password is correct. It works with their web client and it works with that damnable IMAP protocol. I copy and paste the password, so there is little chance of error.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.5), C02RX4SNFVH7

Posted on Jun 9, 2017 10:47 PM

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Answer 1

LACAllen

Level 8

43,602 points

Jun 9, 2017 11:48 PM in response to Barbara_Nostrand

As I am unlikely to get help from the ill-named "geniuses" at Apple, does anyone have an idea on how to coerce mail to work properly?

That isn't Apple's call for any other mail provider than Apple.

If ABC mail provider wants you on IMAP, you are on IMAP. Apple can't get you past that.

You can store your messages locally on a Mac if you choose. IMAP is suited for multiple access points. POP is not.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,020 points

Jun 10, 2017 4:13 AM in response to Barbara_Nostrand

In Mail Preferences, Accounts, click the Add button below the list of email accounts.

Choose Other Mail Account.

For the user name and password, enter garbage characters such that it won't find the account.

It will present a dialog to choose the type of account and manually set up the servers, username, and password.

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Answer 3

Jun 10, 2017 6:45 AM in response to Barney-15E

That may have been what I finally did. I finally found instructions on how to force creation of a POP account in another discussion. One trick involved deleting the existing IMAP account settings for that ISP before trying to create the POP account in mail. LACAllen failed to read my entire message. I had already spent considerable time with the ISP support staff before trying to find a solution with Apple support. Regardless, deleting the existing IMAP account appears to have been critical to getting this thing done. The solution posted by someone (and I can not recall their nickname) had a few other steps, but it did allow mail to automatically set up the account which the ISP service person was unable to do manually. mail now has a functional POP account set up with the ISP. Regardless, the account is now set up as a POP account.

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