How to convert a POP account to IMAP account

 

IMAP email accounts are much better at syncronzing email between devices (your desktop computer, smart phone, and webmail) than POP accounts.  Additionally, Brownrice Advanced Spam protection (DSPAM) only works with IMAP and POP accounts can behave strangely if you are leaving a copy of your email on our servers.  So we highly recomend creating your email account as an IMAP account instead of a POP account. 

Below are instructions for converting your email from a POP to an IMAP account for different email programs.  Be sure to back up your email before doing this as a mistake could cause you to lose your email.

Mac Mail: How to convert a POP account to an IMAP account.

Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010:  Convert from a POP3 account to IMAP.

Thunderbird: Switch from POP to IMAP

Also note:  You must convert ALL of your devices (phones, computers, laptops) in order for this to work correctly.  Phones typically use IMAP by default or if they are POP accounts they leave mail on the server so that those accounts can simply be deleted and recreated as an IMAP account.