The using of IMAP to access your mailbox has advantages over POP3 and the difference of their working mechanism can be summarized in the following table.
POP3 | IMAP |
Since email needs to be downloaded into desktop PC before being displayed, you may have the following problems for POP3 access:
The downloaded email may be deleted from the server depending on the setting of your email client. | Since email is kept on server, it would gain the following benefits for IMAP access:
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All messages as well as their attachments will be downloaded into desktop PC during the 'check new email' process. | A whole message will be downloaded only when it is opened for display from its content. |
Mailboxes can only be created on desktop PC. There is only one mailbox (INBOX) exists on the server. | Multiple mailboxes can be created on the desktop PC as well as on the server. |
Filters can transfer incoming/outgoing messages only to local mailboxes. | Filters can transfer incoming/outgoing messages to other mailboxes no matter where the mailboxes locate (on the server or the PC). |
Outgoing email is stored only locally on the desktop PC. | Outgoing email can be filtered to a mailbox on server for accessibility from other machine. |
Messages are deleted on the desktop PC. Comparatively, it is inconvenient to clean up your mailbox on the server. | Messages can be deleted directly on the server to make it more convenient to clean up your mailbox on the server. |
Messages may be reloaded onto desktop PC several times due to the corruption of system files. | The occurrence of reloading messages from the server to PC is much less when compared to POP3. |