Change imap to pop3 Outlook 2010

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I notice that on my wife’s PC, Outlook is connected to an Imap account. Mine is connected to a Pop3 account.

On hers, Outlook opens with Inbox collapsed, which I hear, cannot open expanded, whereas mine opens with Inbox expanded to Sent, etc.

How can I change hers to Pop3 without losing her emails and Sent items etc?

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You won’t lose anything when you make the switch from IMAP to POP3. To do it, you simply change the settings on her email account in Outlook. An easier way to do it would be to stop her Outlook email account from checking her email, and then set up an entirely new email account for her in Outlook using the POP3 settings.

However, before doing this, you need to consider the implications of POP3. The main implication is that from that point forward, ALL of her email will be in one place only — on her computer. If the hard drive crashes, and you don’t have a good backup, you will lose all of her email up to that point. With IMAP, if the hard drive crashes, all of her email is on the server, so she won’t lose anything. Also, if your wife likes to access her email from more than one location, she needs to stay with IMAP, because with IMAP, all of her email is always in all locations that she checks it from.

The advantage of POP3 is that it allows you to store a whole lot more email than IMAP. In fact, you can store virtually an unlimited amount of email by using POP3, because incoming email is copied to her hard drive and then DELETED from the server. (With IMAP, it stays in both places, so if she gets and keeps a whole lot of email, she could max out her storage space.)

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I make system image backups regularly, so I can recover emails from there. I did try to change her imap to pop3, but it didn’t work. Please give me the correct steps to do this! Thanks in advance. Errol

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I make system image backups regularly, so I can recover emails from there. I did try to change her imap to pop3, but it didn’t work. Please give me the correct steps to do this! Thanks in advance. Errol

I don’t know what version of Outlook you are running; I am running 2010. I will give you the steps for 2010; most of the process will be the same no matter which version of Outlook you are running.

1. Stop her account from checking for new email.

Click Send/Receive tab, then Send/Receive Groups.
Click Disable Scheduled Send/Receive.

2. Set her up a new Outlook email account.

Click File / Info / Account Settings / Account Settings

Click the New button (just above the account listings, and to the left)

Choose Email Account, then click Next.

Fill in her name (e.g. Jane Smith), her email address (e.g. janesmith@aol.com), and her password.

Choose Manually configure server settings, and click Next.

Choose Internet Email, and click Next.

Fill in her name and email address. Choose POP3. Fill in the incoming and outgoing server names (you’ll need to get this info from your email provider — POP3 server will be different than IMAP server). Fill in the username and password, and check the box to remember the password. Choose “New Outlook Data File”.

When you click Next, it will attempt to connect and get new emails. If it succeeds, you’re good to go. If it fails, you’ll need to go to More Settings, and check on the Advanced tab to make sure the server port numbers are correct (you’ll need to get this info from your email provider). Also on the More Settings / Advanced tab, you can choose to leave a copy of your email on the server, and for how long to do so. I recommend that you leave it on the server for at least a few days, in case you inadvertently delete something you intended to keep.

After you have finished setting her up a new Outlook email account, you can move her emails from the old set of folders to the new set of folders. You can then go to step 2 above if you like, and delete her old Outlook email account. But don’t do that until you are sure that the new one is working correctly.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Interesting, I always thought the setting in E-Mail Clients to “leave a copy on the server” worked for either type account.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Interesting, I always thought the setting in E-Mail Clients to “leave a copy on the server” worked for either type account.

I’m sure you’re right. But it seems more efficient to me to use IMAP if you want to have all of your email clients synchronized, because that is what IMAP is designed to do.

So would there be any differences between going IMAP, and going POP3 with leaving your email on the server forever?

And suppose you check your email from two different computers. Would that cause there to be differences between IMAP and POP3?

I have one email address which works with POP3 only — they don’t provide for IMAP. As I recall, I set it to leave my mail on the server for a few days (five, I think), to give me a chance to recover something. But that particular email provider doesn’t give you much storage space, so I don’t leave things on the server for very long.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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So would there be any differences between going IMAP, and going POP3 with leaving your email on the server forever?

I haven’t seen it be a problem yet. As for “forever”, the ISP involved will have limitations on that.

And suppose you check your email from two different computers. Would that cause there to be differences between IMAP and POP3?

Actually I may use more than that over a week’s time but only one is allowed to do the final download which deletes from the server.

*******
I have a Domain which the Hosting Service provides E-Mail for, an account provided by my ISP and Hotmail, Outlook.com and Gmail accounts, actually 2 Outlook.com accounts. My ISP also provides Webmail/Online E-Mail service, both my Domain and ISP’s Webmail are quite handy when traveling, gets away from the Relaying [Sending] issue when logged into a different ISP that the one set in the installed E-Mail Client account.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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With IMAP, it is expected that all email will stay on the server “forever”, that is, for however long you have email service with the company in question.

Also, with IMAP there is never a “final download”, so all clients always have a copy of all email.

So for me, IMAP is the preferred way of doing email. I rarely if ever go over my email size limit, because I regularly delete email that I don’t need.

The only downside for me with IMAP is that if I have an IMAP setup on multiple computers for the same email address, each one of those computers will have a complete copy of my email. So for privacy reasons, I have an IMAP client on one computer only, and I access my email via webmail from all other computers.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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