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Need to change from imap to pop. How do I backup all of folders i.e. inbox, sent, etc. and not lose my emails.

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  • Last reply by david

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Need to change from imap to pop. How do I backup all of my folders i.e. inbox, sent, etc.?

Not knowing how to do the change, how does changing from imap to pop affect my existing emails on Thunderbird? What happens to them on the mail server. Is there a help file on doing the change from imap to pop that a non-tech can understand?

This all started sometime ago when I went from the developer version of Thunderbird (installed in error) to the normal version. When I loaded the normal version I selected imap by mistake as I did not know the difference between pop and imap. At that time I lost all of emails that I had on Thunderbird prior to the change. I am trying to not lose my email on this change from imap to pop.

Need to change from imap to pop. How do I backup all of my folders i.e. inbox, sent, etc.? Not knowing how to do the change, how does changing from imap to pop affect my existing emails on Thunderbird? What happens to them on the mail server. Is there a help file on doing the change from imap to pop that a non-tech can understand? This all started sometime ago when I went from the developer version of Thunderbird (installed in error) to the normal version. When I loaded the normal version I selected imap by mistake as I did not know the difference between pop and imap. At that time I lost all of emails that I had on Thunderbird prior to the change. I am trying to not lose my email on this change from imap to pop.

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Since you're keeping the same account, the inbox will stay. The only folder to keep is the sent folder. - go to your syncronization&storage settings for account and click button to verify that the desired folders are set for offline use. - Go to Files>offline and click an option to fully download all folders. Do a check of your own that all the messages are there when done. - exit Thunderbird. - in Windows File Explorer, locate your profile (something such as c:\users\<yourid>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird\profiles\<yourprofilename> and click the Imapmail folder. Locate your account and the files you want will generally have two names (e.g., SENT, SENT.msf). Copy those to the Mail\local folders directory, being sure to not overwrite any files of same name. - start thunderbird. - set up POP account. once you're content with performance, you can delete the IMAP account.

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When you say set up POP account, am I setting up a brand new account? Can't I change the existing account to POP or is that what you are saying?

If it is a new account, what happens to the old imap account? How will the mail server react when I still have the imap account and a new POP account? Will I have duplicate messages? This is confusing and I don't want to do something that cannot be fixed.

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Or and thank you for the quick response

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Never attempt to change IMAP to POP or the reverse. It all goes downhill. Yes, you can have POP and IMAP side by side. Each acts independently. During transition phase, you should have four servers - two incoming and two outgoing. The two outgoing will look the same. Give each a different name so you don't get confused. POP has several settings that are different, so be sure to review all of them after the setup. And you're welcome.