POP to IMAP

[ep2012]

Hi,

I know the answer is probably no, but I thought I'd ask just in case.

Is there any way I can change the settings of my existing POP accounts to IMAP so I don't have to redo all those new accounts?

Thanks

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP ... AP_account

"Its possible to hack the files in the profile to convert the account, but its tricky and time consuming and requires knowledge most users don't have. Its much quicker and safer to create a new account and move the messages to it, and then delete the old account."

[jamo2]

No, in Thunderbird is no way to change from pop to imap.

POP stores the mails locally. IMAP stores the mails on the Mail Server in the Internet.

You can only create new IMAP Accounts and delete the old POP accounts (but you can also have both).

If you delete a POP account you will also loose all the Mails in it.

IMAP is not often a good idea ... Mail servers have most time a limited storage place. If the available storage place is full, new mails will not be accepted.

[tanstaafl]

IMAP is not often a good idea ... Mail servers have most time a limited storage place. If the available storage place is full, new mails will not be accepted.

There are plenty of commercial email providers that have large mailboxes. Some versions of GSuite (a commercial version of Gmail) support unlimited storage.

For many users it really depends upon how much of a packrat you are. I'm still only using 1/3 of the 1GB quota on my Fastmail IMAP account, after 10 years. If it gets to be a problem I'll move a lot of old messages to folders in a free Gmail IMAP account (which has a 12.26GB quota) or to "Local Folders". Or upgrade from my cheap legacy account to the new "standard" (25GB) or "professional" (100GB) accounts. The latter offers "Flexible tamper-proof data retention policies with unlimited archiving space".

if you delete a POP account you will also loose all the Mails in it.

It was only about a year ago that they offered an option to delete the accounts files when deleting it. If you don't check that checkbox Thunderbird forgets about that account, but leaves all of the accounts files intact. You can use them again either by importing them using the ImportExportTools add-on or by adding the POP account again and changing the "Local Directory" setting to the old value (where the old files are).