Description: This article contains some of the most frequently asked questions about POP3 an IMAP email details from Winter 2019.

Q: What is POP3 email?
A: POP3 forwards a copy of your email to your device. POP3 sends and receives email on set intervals. Emails are saved until deleted. POP3 can be configured to delete the email from the server when downloaded. POP3 does not synchronize across devices. Emails downloaded on one computer will not download to another device if you switch devices.

Q: What are Reasons to use POP3?
A: You need to save your emails for archival purposes.
A: For security reasons you do not want to keep a copy of the email on a remote server.
A: You need to continue working with your messages while not connected to the internet.

Q: What is IMAP email?
A: IMAP synchronizes your email with the email server across devices. IMAP accesses your email in real time and can be set to not store a copy on your device. You can also choose to only view messages sent less than a certain number of days old.

Q: What are reasons to use IMAP?
A: You need to access your email from multiple computers or devices and want to keep all your messages synchronized.
A: You have limited storage space on your device, or you don’t want to use a lot of disk space saving emails.
A: You want to quickly load recent emails and may not need to load older emails at all.
A: For privacy or security reasons, you do not want to save messages to your computer or phone.