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Changing from POP to IMAP

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Last Updated: April 28, 2015 11:43 AM

You can always use Web-Based Email to send and receive email messages. But you also can view your email with an email client. To change your POP account to an IMAP account, you must have an email plan that supports IMAP.

You can change to IMAP by changing your existing account or by creating a new one from within your email client. You cannot change the account type for some clients, including Apple Mail, Outlook 2003®, Outlook 2007®, Outlook Express®, and Thunderbird®. To use IMAP with these clients, you must create a new account.

Verifying Your Email Account Supports IMAP

Only our Unlimited Email plan supports IMAP. If you do not have an Unlimited Email plan and you want to use IMAP, you can upgrade your plan.

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Email.
  3. If your email plan is an Unlimited Email plan, IMAP is supported. If not, next to the account you want to upgrade, click Options.
  4. Go to the Overview tab, and then from the Upgrade menu, select Unlimited.
  5. Click Upgrade.
  6. Continue through the checkout process.

Upgrading your email account to support IMAP can take up to 24 hours.

Changing Your POP Account to an IMAP Account

Before You Start:

You need the names of your incoming and outgoing servers to set up email with a client. Web-Based Email contains this information.

  1. Log in to Web-Based Email at email.secureserver.net.
  2. From the Help menu, select Email Setup Center.
  3. Make a note of your incoming and outgoing server information.
  4. Continue with the procedures outlined below to set up your email client.

To Change Your POP Account to an IMAP Account

In the client you use to check your email, locate the account settings and enter the following:

  • Incoming Mail Server — Your incoming IMAP server.
  • Outgoing Mail Server — Your outgoing SMTP server.
  • Incoming Port — Without SSL - 143
    With SSL - 993
  • Outgoing Port — Without SSL - one of the following:25, 80, 3535
    With SSL - 465

NOTE: If you created mail folders in your POP account, you will need to recreate them in your IMAP account.

For information on setting up a new IMAP account see Setting Up Your Email Address with IMAP.

NOTE: As a courtesy, we provide information about how to use certain third-party products, but we do not endorse or directly support third-party products and we are not responsible for the functions or reliability of such products.