So for POP3 users, mobile devices are better for viewing or deleting email, but not necessarily for sending messages you may need a paper trail for later.Īlso, remember that if you leave your mail client running on your PC while you’re out, all mail messages could disappear from your phone as your desktop grabs new batches of email- unless you (usually manually) configure your email to continue to store messages on the server for a predetermined length of time after you download them.There are several aspects of security and which one is more secure for you depends on your environment and requirements: One last note about IMAP on your phone and POP3 on your PC: if you reply to email on your phone, your PC won’t download new messages in your sent folder, since POP3 only grabs messages from the server. If you’re using a major webmail service like Gmail, the easiest thing to do is just use Google’s Gmail app for Android or iOS. The last thing you want to do is download email to both your phone and your PC via POP3, since you’ll end up with two separate repositories of email: stuff downloaded to your phone and stuff downloaded to your PC.

POP3 also requires your mail client to support it and not all do, such as Microsoft’s default mail client on the modern UI side of Windows 8.1.Īs for smartphones and tablets, you should still use IMAP there if possible, even if you’re using POP3 on your PC. Making matters worse, IMAP-friendly email providers may not even support POP3, or if they do they may not publish detailed instructions on how to access your account using the protocol.Īnd that’s just on the server side. POP3, meanwhile, often requires a manual set-up. Most (but not all) POP setups wipe email from their servers by default once you download it to your local device, although you can often configure your email client to leave your messages on the server as well.Īs for set-up, it may be a little easier to use IMAP since many email clients create accounts with IMAP by default. Your actions aren’t synchronized with the server like they are with IMAP it’s just a “dumb” download.

The Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), on the other hand, is specifically designed for downloading email from your email provider’s server to your local machine.

Pop3 or imap proton email