How to switch Apple Mail POP3 Email Account to IMAP

Switching your email account setup from POP3 to IMAP in Apple Mail can help you keep your emails synced across multiple devices. Follow these steps to make the transition smoothly.

1. Backup Your Emails

Before making any changes, it’s crucial to back up your existing emails to avoid any data loss.

Backup Procedure:

1. Open Apple Mail.
2. Select the mailbox or folders you want to back up.
3. Click Mailbox from the menu and choose Export Mailbox…
4. Save the mailbox to a desired location on your computer.

2. Remove the POP3 Account

You need to remove the existing POP3 account from Apple Mail:

1. Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts.
2. Select the POP3 account you want to remove.
3. Click the – button at the bottom to remove the account.

3. Set Up the IMAP Account

Follow our help article How to setup IMAP in Apple Mail

4. Transfer Emails from Backup

If you backed up your emails in Step 1, you can now import them into your new IMAP account.

1. Click File from the menu and select Import Mailboxes…
2. Choose Apple Mail as the format, then locate and select the mailbox file(s) you exported earlier.
3. Follow the prompts to import the emails into your new IMAP account.

Please note, if you are importing a large number of emails into your IMAP mailbox it may take a long time to import them as each email is uploaded to the Ecenica mail servers. Please ensure your Ecenica email account has sufficient storage space.