Two good reasons to stick with
POP3 email over IMAP
Ian Paul@ianpaul
Oct 24, 2014 7:00 AM
Lately, I’ve noticed quite a few
stories and discussions online centering around the always popular debate about
whether to use IMAP or POP3 for email. If you don’t know what I’m talking
about, IMAP and POP3 are the protocols you use to access email via clients like
Outlook, Thunderbird,
or Android's stock email app.
The general consensus is that the more
modern IMAP is the way to go and the aging POP3 standard should be abandoned at
all costs.
But that’s just not the case. In fact,
I am going to point out two very good reasons to go on using POP3, or perhaps
even actively switch to it.
IMAP and POP3 basics
The key thing to know about the
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is that it lets you view your email
folders the same way on any device, as it’s all synchronized from a central
server. With IMAP your inbox, sent, and customized folders look alike, and have
the same content, whether you’re checking mail on your phone, tablet, or
PC.
The Post Office Protocol version 3
(POP3), on the other hand, is specifically designed for downloading email from
your email provider’s server to your local machine. Your actions aren’t
synchronized with the server like they are with IMAP; it’s just a “dumb”
download. Most (but not all) POP setups wipe email from their servers by
default once you download it to your local device, although you can often
configure your email client to leave your messages on the server as well.
As for set-up, it may be a little
easier to use IMAP since many email clients create accounts with IMAP by
default.
POP3, meanwhile, often requires a
manual set-up. Making matters worse, IMAP-friendly email providers may not even
support POP3, or if they do they may not publish detailed instructions on how
to access your account using the protocol.
And that’s just on the server side.
POP3 also requires your mail client to support it and not all do, such
as Microsoft’s default mail client on the modern UI side of Windows 8.1.
It’s all about storage and privacy
The first reason you might want to use
POP3 is if your main email account isn’t connected to a major webmail service
like Gmail or Outlook. Alternatives such as email accounts from Internet
Service Providers or website hosting services often set limits on how much mail
can be stored on their servers.
In those cases, it’s best to turn to
POP3, so you can download your mail and wipe it off the server to stay under
the storage quota.
Privacy is another reason to rely on
POP3. In this post-Snowden era, many are uncomfortable with keeping personal
data like email on a third-party server. Email sitting on a server you don’t
control is wide open to access by law enforcement with the right set of
warrants.
Keeping your email on your devices, and
off of third-party servers, means anyone who wants to look at your email has to
come to you and not your email provider.
There are a few weaknesses to that
argument, however, since intelligence agencies could still grab your email
while it transits the Internet. Your mail provider may also have redundant
backup copies of your email that won’t get deleted right away, defeating the
whole point of using POP3 for privacy concerns. (Fortunately, it’s possible to encrypt your
email.)
Sure, most of us are probably never
going to be targets of a police investigation. But for most people these
privacy concerns are really about the principle of the issue .
The negatives
The downside of POP3 in a multi-device
world is that you’ll have to take some precautions and think hard about how to
access email on a mobile device.
Since the sole copy of your email is
now on your PC, you’ll have to have a solid back-up
plan to make sure you don’t lose your messages to a failed hard
drive.
As for smartphones and tablets, you
should still use IMAP there if possible, even if you’re using POP3 on your PC.
The last thing you want to do is download email to both your phone and your PC
via POP3, since you’ll end up with two separate repositories of email: stuff
downloaded to your phone and stuff downloaded to your PC. It’s a nightmare.
If you’re using a major webmail service
like Gmail, the easiest thing to do is just use Google’s Gmail app for Android
or iOS. Ditto for Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail.
One last note about IMAP on your phone
and POP3 on your PC: if you reply to email on your phone, your PC won’t
download new messages in your sent folder, since POP3 only grabs
messages from the server. So for POP3 users, mobile devices are better for
viewing or deleting email, but not necessarily for sending messages you may
need a paper trail for later.
Also, remember that if you leave your
mail client running on your PC while you’re out, all mail messages could
disappear from your phone as your desktop grabs new batches of email—unless
you (usually manually) configure your email to continue to store messages on
the server for a predetermined length of time after you download
them.
It’s not a perfect solution, especially
if you need mobile access, but if storage quotas or privacy concerns are issues
for you, then POP3 is probably a better choice than IMAP.
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In addition to this blog, I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, " Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:
www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo. I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ Rider University and PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
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In addition to this blog, I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, " Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:
www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo. I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ Rider University and PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
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