Internet > Web Browsing & Email

IMAP and email clients

(1/4) > >>

Weaver:
My ignorance, because I have never used IMAP I have a couple of totally stupid basic questions, and would be interested to know about different email clients and options for behaviour settings.

* Using IMAP do you tend to always leave mail on the server after downloading it in email client x? Or can you download the whole lots and empty the server?

* Do you have to have a live internet connection while you are using IMAP client x?

* What if you lose your internet connection midway - is the typical client sickly?

* What about totally off-line use?

* Is IMAP any good?

broadstairs:
I use IMAP on my Android tablet, the client I use is set up to download messages but leave them on the server, once downloaded you can work offline but you may not have all of each individual email. For me IMAP is ideal when away from home to view emails and then download them to my desktop for archiving later.

Stuart

Weaver:
Broadstairs - could one change those behaviours on your particular email client? I ask because I am wondering how much - poss zero - is fixed by the nature of IMAP.

broadstairs:
I use an Android client called K-9. IMAP was designed to allow multiple clients to handle the same inbox(es) on a server only deleting them when deleted on the client. Looking at the settings for K-9 you can optionally always download entire messages or only those up to a certain size, it has poll and push folders (whatever they are). If you always want to download all messages and delete from the server then POP3 is best which is what my desktop and laptops are configure for (although the laptops dont delete off the server they still use POP3).

Stuart

Weaver:
I had got this vague idea from somewhere that you tend to end up being forced to leave stuff on the server. Is that way off then?

If someone is leaving mail on the server and using imap, then (typically) what on on earth is supposed to happen when it simply builds up and hits the mailbox quota? You presumably start losing either old or new mail randomly at that point? (Answer: depends on the server or its settings or who knows what?)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page