iPhone POP3 vs IMAP

[PerranOak]

I've been setting-up email accounts on the iPhone 13 Pro Max. I have two accounts from the same ISP. The first one I setup went ok as a POP3 rather than IMAP.

However, the second one doesn't give the option of selecting which (POP3/IMAP) it just automatically sets it up as IMAP. 

How do I force a POP3 setup?

Cheers.

[Bassman59]

I've been setting-up email accounts on the iPhone 13 Pro Max. I have two accounts from the same ISP. The first one I setup went ok as a POP3 rather than IMAP.

However, the second one doesn't give the option of selecting which (POP3/IMAP) it just automatically sets it up as IMAP. 

How do I force a POP3 setup?

Does the ISP allow POP3 for that second account?

[PerranOak]

Yup. I have it as POP3 on another machine.

[ejeffrey]

Any particular reason you want to use pop3?  There is no reason this shouldn't work, but almost all development is on imap now, so it wouldn't be shocking if pop3 had weird bugs that didn't get fixed.

One clarification: do I understand that these are completely different accounts with different username and password that happen to be on the same server?  IMAP supports multiple mailboxes on the same account.  If that is what you have, then pop3 will only be able to access the primary mailbox.

[Someone]

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=ios+force+pop
To "help" the majority of users if the server accepts IMAP then it will select that without prompting.

[PerranOak]

They are with the same ISP but have completely different usernames, etc.

Basically, I have three devices I use for email: phone, tablet, PC. I just want the phone for checking but not to store old ones (similar for the tablet although complicated by the fact that the boss uses it as here main email device) so I want POP3. I use the PC to store emails and is the main device for "managing" it all. Therefore, I want to view and delete email on the phone but leave them for the PC (usually later on) to reply/store/etc.

So, POP3 on the phone would be ideal and IMAP on the PC is fine as it tends to be the "master".

[ve7xen]

So, POP3 on the phone would be ideal and IMAP on the PC is fine as it tends to be the "master".

Perhaps you are confused? Because it sounds to me like the opposite would be ideal...and this use case is more or less why nobody uses POP3 anymore.

IMAP leaves all the mail on the server, and synchronizes the read/deleted/etc. state between client and server.

POP3 just downloads the mail and (depending on client configuration) might delete it. It's generally only useful if you only have one client.

[magic]

Maybe OP uses some weird mail service which handles POP3 vs IMAP in special ways.

I recall hearing of some servers ignoring deletion by POP3, or automatically deleting all mail downloaded by POP3, or whatever. For the record, I don't even know how POP3 is supposed to work on paper.

With sane mail servers, there is absolutely no problem with multiple IMAP clients. You download to local storage whatever you want, nothing gets deleted unless by your request, you can move messages between folders on the server, messages marked as read on one client show up as read on others - it just works. I have used several mail accounts that way, including private corporate servers and free webmails.

[Halcyon]

POP is old-school, but many clients/services still support it. It depends on your use case. If you specifically just want to download an single offline copy of your email and all the attachments, without leaving anything on the server, then use POP (just make sure you use STARTTLS or SSL).

If you need to sync multiple devices, access your emails via a web browser or use more advanced functions such as server-side email filters/rules, then stick with IMAP.