Setting the Mac OS X "Mail" program to use IMAP

With the OS X Mail application, you can optionally use IMAP connections for reading incoming mail. Using IMAP (instead of the more widely used POP) allows you to keep your messages on our servers instead of downloading them to your computer.

Keeping messages on our servers can be useful if you read mail using different programs or devices. For example, if you use OS X Mail, Webmail and an iPhone, IMAP allows each method to know what messages you've read using other methods, and to share a single "Sent Mail" folder on the server.

(If you always read mail using a single copy of OS X Mail, using IMAP won't make much difference and probably isn't worth the extra effort.)

Configuring IMAP

To configure IMAP with SSL, you will:

• First follow our standard instructions to set up OS X Mail, choosing IMAP instead of "POP".
• Specify folders for storing Drafts, Sent Items and Trash.

1. Follow our standard instructions for setting up OS X Mail

You'll first need to follow the basic instructions to set up OS X Mail, with one change: choose "My incoming mail server is a IMAP server" (instead of "POP") in step 3.

If you previously set up a POP account for this email in OS X Mail, you will need to disable the old account. (You should not delete the old account from Mail unless you first follow the instructions on the "Safely Deleting Old Mail Accounts" page.)

2. Setting Sent, Trash, and Drafts

Once the account has been set up, there's an additional step needed to to keep Mail folders in sync with other programs or devices that might connect to the mailbox.

In the Mail application, click the Sent folder for the new mailbox. Then click the Mailbox menu and choose Use this Mailbox for > Sent.

Repeat for the Trash folder (choosing Use this Mailbox for > Trash) and the Drafts folder (Use this Mailbox for > Drafts).