Switching from POP to IMAP for different clients

This information only pertains to Hurricane Electric's Shared Web Hosting package. There may be different information in our other categories.

Mozilla Thunderbird

1. Open Thunderbird.
2. From the drop-down menu, choose Tools -> Account Settings.
3. Select your H.E. POP account and click on Server Settings.
4. Uncheck "Check for new messages at startup" and C"heck for new messages every X minutes."
5. Click "OK".
6. Go to Tools-Options and click on the Security or Privacy tab. Click on View Saved Passwords and delete the password associated with the POP Account.
7. Click "Close" and "OK".
8. Quit Thunderbird.
9. Open Thunderbird again. You shouldn't be prompted for a password for this account. If you are, click "Cancel" and then go back and make sure you didn't skip a step.
10. Set up the IMAP account as if it were a new account.
11. If you want your old email to be available in your IMAP folder(s), including if you want to share them across multiple devices, drag the email(s) from the old POP folder to the IMAP folder. If this is a lot of emails, this will take a while as they are uploaded to the server.
12. When you've moved everything you want to keep, you can delete the POP account from Tools -> Account Settings.

Windows Mail/Outlook Express

1. Open the program.
2. From the drop-down menu, choose Tools -> Accounts.
3. Select your H.E. account and click "Properties".
4. On the General tab, uncheck "Include this account when receiving mail or synchronizing".
5. On the Servers tab, uncheck "Remember password".
6. Click "OK" and "Close".
7. Quit the program.
8. Open the program again. You shouldn't be prompted for a password for this account. If you are, click "Cancel" and then go back and make sure you didn't skip a step.
9. Set up the IMAP account as if it were a new account.
10. If you want your old email to be available in your IMAP folder(s), including if you want to share them across multiple devices, drag the email(s) from the old POP folder to the IMAP folder. If this is a lot of emails, this will take a while as they are uploaded to the server.
11. When you've moved everything you want to keep, you can delete the POP account from Tools -> Accounts.

Outlook 2010

1. Open Outlook.
2. From the drop-down menu, choose File->(Info tab)->Account Settings->Account Settings.
3. Select your H.E. account and click "Change".
4. Uncheck "Remember password".
5. Click "Next", "Finish" and "Close".
6. Go to the Send/Receive menu.
7. Click on "Send/Receive Groups", then "Define Send/Receive Groups..."
8. Click on Edit, click on your H.E. account, and uncheck "Include the selected account in this group"
9. Click on "OK" and "Close".
10. Quit Outlook.
11. Open the program again. You shouldn't be prompted for a password for this account. If you are, click "Cancel" and then go back and make sure you didn't skip a step.
12. Set up the IMAP account as if it were a new account.
13. If you want your old email to be available in your IMAP folder(s), including if you want to share them across multiple devices, drag the email(s) from the old POP folder to the IMAP folder. If this is a lot of emails, this will take a while as they are uploaded to the server.
14. When you've moved everything you want to keep, you can delete the POP account from File->(Info tab)->Account Settings->Account Settings.

Outlook 2007

1. Open Outlook.
2. From the drop-down menu, choose Tools -> Account Settings.
3. Select your H.E. account and click "Change".
4. Uncheck "Remember password".
5. Click "Next", "Finish" and "Close".
6. Choose Tools -> Options -> Mail Setup.
7. Click on "Send/Receive".
8. Click on Edit, click on your H.E. account, and uncheck "Include the selected account in this group"
9. Click on "OK", "Close", and "OK" again.
10. Quit Outlook.
11. Open the program again. You shouldn't be prompted for a password for this account. If you are, click "Cancel" and then go back and make sure you didn't skip a step.
12. Set up the IMAP account as if it were a new account.
13. If you want your old email to be available in your IMAP folder(s), including if you want to share them across multiple devices, drag the email(s) from the old POP folder to the IMAP folder. If this is a lot of emails, this will take a while as they are uploaded to the server.
14. When you've moved everything you want to keep, you can delete the POP account from File->(Info tab)->Account Settings->Account Settings.

Outlook XP/2003

1. Open Outlook.
2. From the drop-down menu, choose Tools -> Email Accounts.
3. Select "View or change existing e-mail accounts" and click "Next".
4. Select your H.E. account and click "Change".
5. Uncheck "Remember password".
6. Click "Next" and "Finish".
7. Choose Tools -> Options -> Mail Setup.
8. Click on "Send/Receive".
9. Click on Edit, click on your H.E. account, and uncheck "Include the selected account in this group"
10. Click on "OK", "Close", and "OK" again.
11. Quit Outlook.
12. Open the program again. You shouldn't be prompted for a password for this account. If you are, click "Cancel" and then go back and make sure you didn't skip a step.
13. Set up the IMAP account as if it were a new account.
14. If you want your old email to be available in your IMAP folder(s), including if you want to share them across multiple devices, drag the email(s) from the old POP folder to the IMAP folder. If this is a lot of emails, this will take a while as they are uploaded to the server.
15. When you've moved everything you want to keep, you can delete the POP account from File->(Info tab)->Account Settings->Account Settings.

Apple Mail/Mac Mail

1. Open the program.
2. Choose Mail -> Preferences.
3. Select your H.E. account from the list.
4. Delete the password (it will show up as a row of dots).
5. Click on the Advanced tab.
6. Uncheck "Enable this account" and "Include when automatically checking for new mail".
7. Close the Accounts window and Save your changes.
8. Quit the program fully from the drop-down menu (or command-Q).
9. Open the program again. You shouldn't be prompted for a password for this account. If you are, click "Cancel" and then go back and make sure you didn't skip a step.
10. Set up the IMAP account as if it were a new account.
11. If you want your old email to be available in your IMAP folder(s), including if you want to share them across multiple devices, drag the email(s) from the old POP folder to the IMAP folder. If this is a lot of emails, this will take a while as they are uploaded to the server.
12. When you've moved everything you want to keep, you can delete the POP account from File->(Info tab)->Account Settings->Account Settings.

Mobile Devices (phones and tablets)

It is not recommended that you use this method on a mobile device to switch from POP to IMAP due to a lack of options and ease of use. Instead, use one of the above email clients on a computer to copy any messages you want to keep from your downloaded POP folders to your new IMAP ones. Then just create a new IMAP account on your mobile device. All the messages you copied over on your computer will now show up in your new IMAP account. When you're satisfied, you can simply delete the POP account from your phone or tablet.