When configuring software (such as Outlook) or devices (smartphones, tablets) to connect to your mailbox, you have the choice of connecting using either IMAP or POP3 modes.
We recommend IMAP for most users. The difference between these two modes is illustrated below.
- IMAP email access coordinates between the server and your mail application and/or device. Messages that have been read/deleted/replied to will show up as such, both on the server and in the mail application. You can also create a multi-level folder structure and those will also be synchronised to the server, as opposed to only stored locally on your device.
The advantage of IMAP is that you can connect more than one device and synchronise the state of your inbox messages and folders on all devices. For example, you may connect your desktop computer, laptop and also a smartphone and tablet. Using IMAP, if you delete or mark a message as read (for example) on your laptop, you will then also see that reflected on all your other connected devices. - POP3 does not coordinate with the server. Messages marked as read/deleted/replied to in the mail application will not show up as such on the server using Webmail, nor be synchronised across other devices. This means that if you read a message on your desktop computer, it will still show as unread on your other connected devices such as laptop, tablet or smartphone. However, POP3 can be configured to delete messages from the server automatically once they are downloaded, to keep server storage requirements low. This does mean though that your mailbox won't be backed up if messages have been deleted from the server, as we can only back up what is left on the server.
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