Hi,

I can't find anything about an IMAP option for Yahoo Mail, though I thought I had heard that they have an option for using IMAP rather than POP.

Anybody know where I can find some info? I've googled but couldn't come up with anything useful.

Thanks.

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Pinkoos,

Nope. No option for IMAP. I just checked Yahoo Mail's help section. If you want IMAP, definitely check out fastmail.fm. It's a fee-based e-mail provider but rock solid and well worth the $$$, in my opinion. I believe GMail offers an IMAP option, too. I still prefer fastmail.fm. Check them out at [www.fastmail.fm]. For what it's worth, once you switch to IMAP, you'll find yourself hard pressed returning to POP access. This is especially true if you access your e-mail from multiple locations and computers.

Robert

Quote
Robert M
Pinkoos,

Nope. No option for IMAP. I just checked Yahoo Mail's help section. If you want IMAP, definitely check out fastmail.fm. It's a fee-based e-mail provider but rock solid and well worth the $$$, in my opinion. I believe GMail offers an IMAP option, too. I still prefer fastmail.fm. Check them out at [www.fastmail.fm]. For what it's worth, once you switch to IMAP, you'll find yourself hard pressed returning to POP access. This is especially true if you access your e-mail from multiple locations and computers.

Robert

Thanks. I'm already using fastmail.fm...have been using it for years. But, my parents email address is tied to their DSL account, which is ATT/Yahoo. Right now, they access email mostly by using Mail on their eMac, but as soon as you d/l the email, it's gone off the server. Then, when they log into their web-based ATT/Yahoo account, those messages are gone (since they've already been d/l'd).

Pinkoos,

That's because they're using POP. They're definitely candidates for IMAP. I would do the same thing I did for my parents. Get them a domain and fastmail accounts. Once they each have an address affiliated with the domain, foward their respective e-mail to the fastmail account. Reconfigure Mail for IMAP and they'll have easy access to their mail via the Mail as well as the web based system. More importantly, their mail will no longer be tied to their ISP.

For example.... get them a domain. think pinkoosmomanddad.com. Give them each an addres... mom@pinkoosmomanddad.com and dad@pinkoosmomanddad.com. Mail sent to mom@pinkoosmomanddad.com would in turn be forwarded to your mom's fastmail account. Setup dad the same way.

Tell them not to give out their fastmail address. Think of it as a secret e-mail address. Instead, they should immediately use the address from their domain. They'll have to change all of their online accounts to send mail to the new addresses. Tell their friends, family, etc.

I did that for my parents and haven't looked back. It works nicely for them. Likely, it will work well for your parents, too.

Robert

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm trying to somehow avoid having to give them new email addresses since so they have many accounts, etc. tied to their sbcglobal.net address.

On a related note, I'm not clear as to why a domain is needed. Wouldn't all that you suggest be possible just by using a fastmail.fm address on its own?

Thanks.

Are they using Apple Mail app? If so, did you go into preferences>account settings>advanced tab to change the setting for removing copies from the server from right away to another time period?

I have Pop accts with Comcast and have set Mail up to leave the messages on the server for 30 days. Not as eligant as IMAP, but it works.

Pinkoos,

I wouldn't try to avoid changing to a new address. In fact, I recommend they change to an address affiliated with the domain of their choice wholeheartedly.. Yes, it's a pain at first but the change is well worth it in the long run. The idea of a domain is to provide a universal e-mail address, one that is not connected to an ISP, e-mail provider, etc. It allows for flexibility that is unavailable with an address affiliated with a specific service.

For example... If, for some reason you or they become unhappy with fastmail or something happens to fastmail, just change the forwarding on their domain based address and send the mail to a different provider. Nobody sending them mail will notice the difference. No need to notify anyone of a change. No need to change the e-mail address affiliated with accounts such as Amazon.com. Just change the forwarding. Done. No muss, no fuss.

I have two e-mail address. One is affiliated with one domain. The second affiliated with a different domain. One address is for general purpose e-mail. The other address is for more "official" e-mail. The mail from these address is forward to the same fastmail account. If I change e-mail providers, I change the forwarding to the new provider.

For what it's worth, I started using this system when I was still on dialup. Typically, an ISP would be great for a while then I'd start having reliability issues with the service or they bumped prices and such. So, I changed providers. It was a royal pain in the butt changing e-mail address each time I moved to a different provider. So, I got my own domain. Now I could change providers and not have to worry about it. I was still using POP at that time. When I started using more than one computer and using computers at more than one location, I found POP very cumbersome. That's when I switched to IMAP.

I haven't looked back.

Robert



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2009 01:12PM by Robert M.

Okay, I see. Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that in detail!

I'll consider the domain option.

Yahoo does offer IMAP - but it's only for iPhone use, so doesn't help your case.

What about using webmail exclusively, instead of a client? I switched my entire extended family to either Yahoo or Gmail web interfaces for personal emails.

Only downsides for webmail use:

1) Attachments can't be dragged in / out
2) Must be connected to use it

Pluses -

* Single repository - same access from anywhere
* Amazingly fast search
* No worries about backups

I've used my Yahoo email for over 10 years now and I haven't lost any mails due to them.

PS. For some reason Yahoo never deactivated my POP access after I got rid of SBC DSL, so I use a secondary gmail account to pull all my Yahoo emails as a secondary online archive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2009 01:58PM by bhaveshp.

bhave,

No worries about backups? You absolutely should backup e-mail that you have stored on a remote server. Absolutely. This is regardless of provider. If something happens to Yahoo/Gmail/Fastmail and all of your mail is stored in their server, you're SOL.

FWIW, if you use IMAP, all of your mail is in a single repository that you can access anywhere and you have easy access to it via a mail program as well as the webmail interface provided by the e-mail provider. Any reputable e-mail provider is going to give you webmail access to your account. Avoid a service that lacks that feature.

BTW, no surprise that you haven't lost your yahoo mail account. Yahoo offers a level of service that is free. So, your account probably got converted into a free account.

If you choose Yahoo or GMail, you can still use it in conjunction with a domain. Just have the domain forward mail to the account you have with either of them.

Robert