User profile for user: Suzy2014
Suzy2014 Author
User level: Level 1
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Apple Mail: Are emails and/or folders deleted when switching from POP to IMAP?

Comcast is dropping email and is migrating its customers to Yahoo, while retaining emails addresses. Customers who use Apple Mail as their email client have to take extra steps.


I am using POP and for a variety of reasons I would like to continue to do that after the migration. In another, related thread someone who went through the migration reports that "Apple

mail thinks it’s smarter than you so if you try to set up a POP account with a comcast.net email you get comcast servers entered for you and you can't change them".


All my email (that is very important to me) is stored locally in hundreds of folders.


A Comcast specialist recommends the following workaround on Reddit: "Temporarily create the account as IMAP. Then manually change the incoming server to POP settings.".


I am concerned about what could happen if I do the above. Since I do NOT have emails of the server, would synchronization delete my emails and folders on my computer when I would setup the new account temporarily as IMAP? I do not want to take chances. Does any Apple Mail user know the answer?




iMac 24″, macOS 14.8

Posted on Jan 1, 2026 10:10 AM

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User profile for user: Mac Jim ID
Mac Jim ID
User level: Level 9
61,478 points

Posted on Jan 1, 2026 10:51 AM

All you need to do is set up the new Mailbox and it will default to IMAP, since that is now the default, but you just need to enter the wrong password when setting up and you will see a message that says it failed to set up and then on top of the screen there is an option to switch to POP (you may need to scroll down to see it). After that you can enter the correct Password and set up the incoming(POP) and outgoing(SMTP) mail servers yourself per the settings the provider requires for the POP account.


I would not recommend setting it up as IMAP, then changing the servers to the POP account.

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User profile for user: Mac Jim ID
Mac Jim ID
User level: Level 9
61,478 points

Jan 1, 2026 10:51 AM in response to Suzy2014

All you need to do is set up the new Mailbox and it will default to IMAP, since that is now the default, but you just need to enter the wrong password when setting up and you will see a message that says it failed to set up and then on top of the screen there is an option to switch to POP (you may need to scroll down to see it). After that you can enter the correct Password and set up the incoming(POP) and outgoing(SMTP) mail servers yourself per the settings the provider requires for the POP account.


I would not recommend setting it up as IMAP, then changing the servers to the POP account.

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User profile for user: Lawrence Finch
Lawrence Finch
User level: Level 10
229,246 points

Jan 1, 2026 12:00 PM in response to Mac Jim ID

Mac Jim ID wrote:

All you need to do is set up the new Mailbox and it will default to IMAP, since that is now the default, but you just need to enter the wrong password when setting up and you will see a message that says it failed to set up and then on top of the screen there is an option to switch to POP (you may need to scroll down to see it). After that you can enter the correct Password and set up the incoming(POP) and outgoing(SMTP) mail servers yourself per the settings the provider requires for the POP account.

Very clever!

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Apple Mail: Are emails and/or folders deleted when switching from POP to IMAP?

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