Summary

IMAP is the e-mail protocol that is usually used when multiple devices share the same e-mail account. IMAP is used when these devices need to synchronise. POP3 is usually used when there is a single device accessing an e-mail account.

Synchronised Devices

One of the great advantages of modern devices is that they will automatically synchronise. This means that e-mails sent on one device (e.g. Tablet) can be seen on another device (e.g. smart phone) without the user having to perform any special operations. This does not mean that the devices always show exactly the same e-mails. This is for a variety of reasons, the main ones being synchronisation interval and a devices storage capacity.

When a resync takes place a device will upload any new e-mails it has sent, download any new e-mails and move any e-mails to folders as previously done by another device.

Synchronisation Interval

It is highly likely that different devices will have different synchronisation intervals. Some common options are

• Regular Interval (e.g. every hour)
• Irregular Interval (e.g. the device synchronies when it thinks it is appropriate based on its view of the frequency of e-mail being sent and received)
• Manual - when the user has to explicitly require the device to resync.

Most devices will allow a manual resync.

Device Storage

E-mails take storage space. E-mails with attachments - especially graphic attachments - can be very large. One way of reducing the memory used on a device (especially a smart phone) is to only keep recent e-mails and/or not to store images in e-mails. When setting up a device you may be asked for a time period to store e-mails. For example, a smart phone may only store e-mails that are less than 30 days old. But, a device may also allow older e-mails to be downloaded using a manual process. For example, when in a folder on a smart phone you may be able to download older e-mails by tapping a "load more" button or by pulling down the list of e-mails in a folder.

Setting up IMAP

See Setting up Live Mail on Windows 10 for details on setting up IMAP.

Known Problems

Cannot Find Sent or Deleted E-Mails

When folders are created on one device, other devices will create that folder and populate it with e-mails when they next synchronise. However, there are some folders that are always present but could have different names. For example, the most common folders to exist are for:

• Incoming Mail
• Outgoing Mail
• Sent Mail
• Drafts
• Spam
• Deleted Mail

It is not a requirement that all devices use the same folder name for a specific function. If they don't, then one device will store it in a particular folder and another device could store it in a different named folder. Most devices put incoming mail into the INBOX folder but other types of e-mail could go into a different folder on different devices. For example, it has been noticed that most devices put all sent e-mails into the SENT folder. But, the Live Mail APP supplied with Windows 10 puts the sent e-mails into the "SENT ITEMS" folder. This means that on the Live Mail App the sent e-mails are in the SENT folder but for all other devices the e-mails are found in the SENT ITEMS folder. And you may have to scroll through your folders to find the SENT ITEMS folder as many mail programs will just see it has a regular folder and not the system folder containing sent e-mails Deleted e-mails has a similar problem as some e-mail programs call the folder TRASH and some call it DELETED!