IMAP vs POP3: Which One Should You Actually Use?
Originally published on the [@fuck.it] blog. Somewhere in every mail app's setup screen there's a question most people answer by guessing: IMAP or POP3?
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If you guessed wrong, you probably found out
If you guessed wrong, you probably found out later. Your phone showed emails your laptop had never heard of. You deleted something on one device and it lived on, undead, on another. Or you replaced your laptop and ten years of mail went to the recycling center with the old one. Here's what the two actually do, which one you want and the one situation where the old one still earns its place.
IMAP keeps your mail on the server and
IMAP keeps your mail on the server and syncs it to every device. Read it on your phone, it's read on your laptop. Use it by default. POP3 downloads your mail to one device and usually deletes it from the server. Simple, offline, single-device. Neither one sends mail. That's SMTP's job, and you need it either way.
Use POP3 only if you read mail on
Use POP3 only if you read mail on one computer, want your archive stored locally and are prepared to back it up yourself.
Gmail's POP news is about Gmail fetching other
Gmail's POP news is about Gmail fetching other accounts, not about your mail app. Apps can still connect to Gmail with either protocol. The Post Office vs. the Filing Cabinet
POP stands for Post Office Protocol, and it
POP stands for Post Office Protocol, and it works like a post office box. You go in, empty the box and take everything home. What happens to the letters after that is your business. The post office neither knows nor cares.
IMAP, the Internet Message Access Protocol, is more
IMAP, the Internet Message Access Protocol, is more like a filing cabinet that stays at the post office. You can read letters there, sort them into drawers, flag the important ones and leave everything in place. Come back through a different door with a different key and you'll find the same cabinet in the same state. That's the whole difference. Everything else follows from where the mail lives.
POP3 does one thing: it fetches the messages
POP3 does one thing: it fetches the messages in your inbox and hands them to your mail app. It was built for download-and-delete, and the people who maintain the standard have said explicitly that's what it should stay. It only sees your inbox. Folders on the server don't exist as far as POP3 is concerned. Nothing syncs back. Read, flagged, moved, deleted: all of that happens on your device only.
"Leave a copy on the server" isn't sync
"Leave a copy on the server" isn't sync. It helps, but your phone and laptop each download their own copy and keep their own separate opinions about it. Sent mail stays put. It lives on whichever device you sent it from. The upside is simplicity. Your mail sits on your own disk, readable offline, independent of the provider. IMAP: One Mailbox, Every Device
IMAP was designed in 1986 for exactly the
IMAP was designed in 1986 for exactly the thing POP3 doesn't do: working with a mailbox that stays on the server. The current version, IMAP4rev2, was published in 2021 as RFC 9051.
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IMAP vs POP3: Which One Should You Actually Use?
Originally published on the [@fuck.it] blog.
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Source: Dev.to