E-mails on a shared account deleting off both devices

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Level 1

8 points

E-mails on a shared account deleting off both devices

Hello all,

Yesterday I noticed that my e-mail account was not functioning on my iPhone. It was not receiving incoming e-mails. The account (Comcast) was working fine though on a PC and other devices. I deleted the e-mail account on my iPhone and reinstalled and it then seemed to work fine. My wife and I share this Comcast account and she has it on her iPhone as well.

We noticed this morning that when I delete an e-mail on my iPhone, it now gets deleted off her phone as well. This did not used to be the case. I could send a message to the trash bin on my phone, but it would still show as unread on her phone when she checked e-mail later in the day. We'd like to have that set-up again but I can't find how to do so. I've looked in settings and I'm at a loss.

If anyone has a work around or an idea on what I've done to change our previous setup I'd appreciate the help.

Cheers,

Billy B

iPhone 6, iOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 12, 2018 6:46 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 12, 2018 7:06 AM in response to Fordney14

An IMAP email account cannot really be “shared”. As far as the Account is concerned, it’s a single account being accessed by a single user. As expected for IMAP, changes made on any one device or access point are reflected on all - that in fact is the entire point of the IMAP protocol.

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Answer 2

Fordney14 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 12, 2018 7:29 AM in response to Michael Black

Thanks Michael. I probably used the wrong term in “shared.” It’s a Comcast e-mail account that we both have access to, in that we both have the user name and password. We can, and do, access this account from multiple locations and devices. But in the past when I would delete e-mails that I’d read from this account on my iPhone, hers would not be impacted. They would still be in her inbox as unread until she accessed them on her phone. Wondering what I did to change that? Thanks again.

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Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,237 points

Mar 12, 2018 7:36 AM in response to Fordney14

You probably had it set up as a POP3 account on your phone. POP3 does not synchronize across devices and is not well suited for using multiple clients. The behavior you are seeing is normal for IMAP accounts.

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Answer 4

Mar 12, 2018 7:52 AM in response to Fordney14

As already mentioned, POP downloads email to the local device. IMAP mail lives in the remote server so changes sync across all devices. When you reinstalled the account on your device, you must have set it up as IMAP.

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Answer 5

Limnos

Level 10

411,127 points

Mar 12, 2018 6:48 AM in response to Fordney14

I am surprised it worked before at all. To me it sounds like what I'd expect with a shared account.

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E-mails on a shared account deleting off both devices

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