IMAP or POP3: what's the difference and which one should you choose?
When you add your email address to an email client, such as Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or the mail app on your phone, you choose between IMAP and POP3. These are two ways to retrieve your mail. Almost always choose IMAP.
The difference
| IMAP (recommended) | POP3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Where is your mail stored? | On the server. Your email client shows a copy. | On your own device. The mail is taken off the server. |
| Multiple devices | The same everywhere. Whatever you read, delete or move, you see on all your devices and in webmail. | Each device retrieves mail on its own. Mail that arrives on one device may not show up on another. |
| Folders, sent mail and spam | Stored on the server, so also on your phone and in webmail. | Only the Inbox is retrieved. You won't see sent mail, folders or the spam folder. |
| Space on the server | All your mail counts towards your storage. | Little, if the mail is taken off the server. |
| If your computer breaks down | Your mail is still on the server, and we back it up every night. | Your mail is gone if you don't have your own backup. |
Don't mix them
If you use POP3 on one device and IMAP on another, they work against each other. When the POP3 device takes the mail off the server, it disappears from your other devices and from webmail. So use IMAP on all your devices.
Still want to use POP3, for example because you only read your mail on one computer? Then turn on the option in your email client to leave a copy of messages on the server.
Switching from POP3 to IMAP
Most email clients can't convert an existing account from POP3 to IMAP. In that case, add your address again as an IMAP account. Mail that has already been downloaded to your computer via POP3 is no longer on the server. If you want to see it on your other devices too, drag it from the old POP3 folders to the folders of the new IMAP account. Then remove the old POP3 account.
Learn more
- Server names and ports: All settings at a glance: servers, ports and security.
- Adding a mailbox step by step: Outlook, Apple Mail on the Mac, iPhone and Android.
- Inbox, Sent, Trash and Junk, and why you sometimes see a folder twice: Folders in your mailbox.
- More in depth, with the technology behind it: IMAP and POP3: retrieving mail in the free course Getting your email in order.