What are POP and IMAP, which one should I use?
- POP and IMAP are 2 different methods to access emails. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
If you don't want to read, or don't understand, choose POP
如你不想看或看不懂 请选POP
Which one should I use?
- If you mostly use your office computer to access your email, use POP3.
- If you often use both Phone and Computer to access your email, use IMAP.
POP3 - Emails are stored on your own computer (not synchronized between devices)
- Advantages
- your server mailbox never get full. You don't need to delete emails from server to free up mailbox space.
- if the server crashed, you will not lost any emails or address book.
- if you sometimes need to access your office emails from outside, you can use WebMail.
- Disadvantages
- if you deleted an junk mail on your office desktop PC, the same junk mail is still on your phone, you have to delete it again.
- when you send email on desktop PC, the sent email will not appear in your phone's Sent Items (unless you BCC to yourself)
IMAP - Emails are stored on the server.
- Advantages
- Email on all devices are synchronized, that means you replied or deleted and email on your business PC, the same email also replied or deleted on your phone.
- Disadvantages
- You have to manually remove emails before your server mailbox storage become full. Or you have to pay more to get more space on the server.