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The Joy and Sorrow of IMAP - Emailers Anonymous
by Jason Clarke Feb 26th 2008 at 12:00PM
Have you got an iPhone and a Gmail account? If so, you're probably using IMAP, and you may not even realize it. What's IMAP? It's an email protocol that has been around for many years, but is not nearly as well known as its counterpart, POP. First, the definitions:
POP, or POP3: Post Office Protocol 3, the most commonly used email protocol for retrieving remote email to a local client over a TCP/IP connection.
IMAP, or IMAP4: Internet Message Access Protocol, an email protocol for accessing email on a remote server using a local client over a TCP/IP connection.
While the two definitions seem very similar, take note of the difference. POP is used for retrieving email to the local client, whereas IMAP is used to access email located on a remote server.
When you use POP, your email comes in to you local client, and typically the remote version is purged. There is no concept of multiple clients having identical synchronized versions of your inbox and email folders.
When you use IMAP, your email actually lives on a remote server, and is not purged. You can access it with a local client, which downloads a copy of your messages, and synchronizes the contents of your local mail store to that of the server's. Changes that you make locally are reflected on the server, and if you wanted to you could connect with another device or email client that is capable of IMAP, and you will see exactly the same thing - all of your messages in your inbox and other folders will reflect exactly what is on the server.
Sounds pretty great, right? Well, yes. Most of us probably have some hardcore geek friend that has been extolling the virtues of IMAP for years, only to have it fall on deaf ears. Most of us have either never had the need for such synchronization, or have not had an IMAP capable mail provider.
For many people, however, having an iPhone in their life made it abundantly clear that having the ability to look at the same inbox on their computer and their mobile device would be extremely valuable.
Gmail's engineers must have thought so too, since it seems like not long after the iPhone was released, Gmail released IMAP access to the masses.
So, with all of the wonderful time saving aspects of IMAP, what reason could you give for not using it? For many, the answer is simple: there isn't one - using IMAP is the only way to go. But the problem of data synchronization that is tackled by IMAP is a sticky one, and one that can sometimes turn ugly.
There is certainly a sense of safety using a solution like IMAP that creates what amounts to multiple synchronized copies of your data. Think of it; if you have a problem on your local email client, simply purge it and start over, and IMAP will happily resynchronize all of your messages from the server. But that synchronization is a double-edged sword. If your local mail client goes haywire and starts doing strange things to your messages, those strange things get synchronized back to the server.
Yes, but does this ever happen? Unfortunately, yes. It's fairly rare, but certainly something to be aware of, and careful about.
For most active IMAP users, the sheer convenience more than outweighs the potential risk, and realistically there is no more danger when using IMAP compared with using POP and only having one copy (your local mail store) of your messages. In both cases, the smart thing to do is ensure you are keeping backups.
Many web hosts and ISPs now offer IMAP as an option, and reasonably large email folder limits. Some even offer unlimited email storage. If you're already using webmail and have flirted with using a desktop client like Outlook or Apple Mail, but didn't want to deal with having to make the switch, give IMAP a try. It can be really nice to work on a desktop application when you're at your computer, but also be able to log into a webmail interface and be dealing with the exact same email environment.
Gmail's engineers must have thought so too, since it seems like not long after the iPhone was released, Gmail released IMAP access to the masses.
So, with all of the wonderful time saving aspects of IMAP, what reason could you give for not using it? For many, the answer is simple: there isn't one - using IMAP is the only way to go. But the problem of data synchronization that is tackled by IMAP is a sticky one, and one that can sometimes turn ugly.
There is certainly a sense of safety using a solution like IMAP that creates what amounts to multiple synchronized copies of your data. Think of it; if you have a problem on your local email client, simply purge it and start over, and IMAP will happily resynchronize all of your messages from the server. But that synchronization is a double-edged sword. If your local mail client goes haywire and starts doing strange things to your messages, those strange things get synchronized back to the server.
Yes, but does this ever happen? Unfortunately, yes. It's fairly rare, but certainly something to be aware of, and careful about.
For most active IMAP users, the sheer convenience more than outweighs the potential risk, and realistically there is no more danger when using IMAP compared with using POP and only having one copy (your local mail store) of your messages. In both cases, the smart thing to do is ensure you are keeping backups.
Many web hosts and ISPs now offer IMAP as an option, and reasonably large email folder limits. Some even offer unlimited email storage. If you're already using webmail and have flirted with using a desktop client like Outlook or Apple Mail, but didn't want to deal with having to make the switch, give IMAP a try. It can be really nice to work on a desktop application when you're at your computer, but also be able to log into a webmail interface and be dealing with the exact same email environment.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GrimReaper said 12:53PM on 2-26-2008
IMAP has been an absolute miracle for me. I used to keep backups of Mail (the fruit version) everytime and was always scared of losing all my data and had no clue how to synchronize my two computers with both the information. Then when I was trying to figure out using Time Machine to only restore a backup of my Mail. During the search I came upon IMAP and have never looked back since. I just download all my mail into Mail, have created different tags in gmail and mails from all 5 of my emails all get tagged into gmail via IMAP and all the junk is thrown away. I now have access to my mail from my iMac, Air and any other computer I get my hands on!!!
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mg said 5:23PM on 2-26-2008
I guess the main reason why average users haven't discovered it is simply Microsoft. They didn't integrate it in Outlook Express, and Outlooks Integration is pain in the ass, e.g. sent emails are always copied to the local sent-folder, nothing goes to the server. And then there isn't LDAP.
I think even business users think IMAP sucks, because of the lame integration in Outlook. Well, Microsoft want to sell their fucking Exchange Server.
And yep, IMAP is standard for me :)
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Insomnic said 1:42PM on 2-26-2008
I use POP, but use the "leave messages on server" function so I don't worry about the "only one copy" issue. Plus, this allows for multiple access to emails in multiple locations since I use my email for multiple functions (like automatic torrent downloads via email).
A factor of Gmail that is hard to replicate in a client application with IMAP or POP is the label system. Local clients have to have multiple copies of an email in order to handle multiple labels and that is the reverse logic that labels represents. One email with multiple tags, not multiple emails in multiple locations.
There are a few times when getting into Gmail and seeing all those "unread" messages that I know I already read is a pain - but that's why they added the quick links to select "unread" and the dropdown menu to mark them as read. People with hundreds of emails a day though may have more of an issue.
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Bill Minton said 1:42PM on 2-26-2008
I've been using IMAP for a year or two now, but with on the email account for my own domain, not yahoo/gmail/hotmail. I even took the time to get all of my old emails uploaded to the server with the correct dates/times (into yearly folders). It's very nice to be able to pull up a browser from anywhere and search all of your emails for things.
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cole said 1:48PM on 2-26-2008
All this talk of IMAP and desktop clients and absolutely no mention of Thunderbird. You mention Outlook and Apple Mail but not Thunderbird. Are you misinformed, or just biased?
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Jason Clarke said 3:19PM on 2-26-2008
Biased, I guess. I have Thunderbird, but it feels to me like a tack-on email client, whereas Outlook is the gold standard of Windows mail clients, and Mail is the same for Macs. No doubt it's powerful, and if you're an open-source enthusiast it's certainly a worthwhile client, but for me there's nothing compelling about it that I can't get with Mail on my Mac.
mg said 5:59PM on 2-26-2008
@cole
About one year ago i tried to fully port to the web using the applish RoundCube Mail. Anyway, desktop apps are more powerful (especially with plugins) so Thunderbird does the job, even at work where i have to connect to the IMAP provided by an exchange service. Although i have Outlook installed i really think Thunderbird is much better, even if the code really really has to be cleanud up.
Thunderbird will gain publicity once Lightning/Sunbird is really integrated into the distro, although i prefer the philosophy of installing (good) plugins.
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bill said 7:33PM on 2-26-2008
gmail imap is broken for me. some emails show up 12 hours after they're sent. apparently google is aware of the problem and suggests turning off imap as the solution. which makes it hard to use gmail on my iphone.
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Rassendyl said 1:49AM on 2-27-2008
Imap is really great and it has helped alot.
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Eric Pollitt said 9:57PM on 2-28-2008
University of Washington (UW) had PINE well over 12 years ago. I could check email through a terminal using IMAP or IMAP like behavior. This was nice for checking email in lab between classes, etc while also having access to email at home -- all without loosing messages.
PINE still exists and most likely comes with Unix and Linux distros.
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James Bell said 11:22AM on 2-29-2008
You might mention that POP clients go haywire and lose mail too. I've seen more mail lost with POP clients than IMAP.
Also good chance to mention an excellent free IMAP backup program, mailstore.
http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx
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Dave Donaldson said 12:06PM on 4-04-2008
It's getting to be a good idea to "archive" all your inbound and outbound mail to a separately hosted mail account. That way, regardless of what happens at your mail provider, you'll be able to find and optionally reconstruct your entire mail tree. Most e-mail hosts (including Google) and many e-mail clients allow you forward and/or bcc: copies to another e-mail address.
One problem with this is of course...storage size. Dumping all your mail, both in and outbound will generate a huge pile of data.
One way to do this cheaply, is to host your own server. But having an open SMTP server on your home network may be impossible, as ISP's often disallow port 25 traffic to subscriber's IPs. And many SMTP senders won't send mail to hosts using dynamic IPs.
The work-around here is fairly simple.
Send the mail to a reputable (but different) host, such as one at your own ISP, or a free-bee such as Google who offers POP retrieval.
Then on a system located at home, set up any e-mail client such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird to run at startup, and retrieve your archive from this account every 60 minutes using the POP3 protocol.
Periodically burn the messages to CDs or DVDs, and voila, you've got a home-brew e-mail archive system that can keep eliminate some of your fears.
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