IMAP and Exchange
To use SpamSieve with your iPhone, you’ll need to set both the Mac and the
iPhone to connect to your mail server using either the IMAP or Exchange mail protocol:
- Many popular mail hosts—such as Apple’s iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo
automatically use IMAP.
- Most other modern mail hosts also offer IMAP support.
- Some hosts, such as Comcast, can enable IMAP support if you request it.
- Some mail hosts only offer support for the older POP protocol. This
makes it impossible for your Mac to clean the spam off your iPhone. We
recommend switching to another provider.
Synchronization
When using IMAP or Exchange, all computers and mobile devices that connect to
the same mail account will share the same mailboxes. The contents of the
mailboxes will be synchronized automatically. The syncing happens when you open
the Mail application.
Switching to IMAP
If your mail host supports IMAP but you are not using it, you can change the
settings on your Mac to connect via IMAP instead of POP. Macworld
has an article about this, or you can follow the instructions below.
- Choose Settings… from the Mail menu and click on Accounts.
Your account(s) will be listed at the left of the window. If it already
says IMAP or iCloud under your account, there’s nothing more that
you need to do.
- If it says POP, you will need to disable the POP account and create a
new IMAP one. Click on the POP account and make note of the contents of
the Server Settings (if present) and Account Information tabs.
Then click the Remove now button to remove from the server any
messages that you’ve already downloaded.
- Click the + button at the bottom of the window and follow the steps
to create a new account. Choose IMAP for the account type. For the
server and login, enter the information that you noted for the POP
account. (Note: Some providers use a different incoming mail server
name for IMAP.) Put “IMAP” at the end of the account’s description so
that you can tell this account apart from the old one.
- You should now be able to check for mail, and Mail will be using IMAP
instead of POP. There will be two sets of mailboxes (Inbox, Sent,
etc.) in the main window. If desired, you can go to each of these
mailboxes and Option-drag the messages from the old mailboxes to the IMAP
ones. Holding down the Option key when dragging the messages will cause
Mail to copy the messages to the IMAP server. Your original messages
will remain in the POP mailboxes on your Mac in case something goes wrong.
- Go back to Mail’s Settings window, click on the POP account, and
uncheck Enable this account (in the Account Information tab).
You will be using the new IMAP account instead, although the old POP
settings, and any messages that you didn’t transfer to the IMAP
mailboxes, will still be available should you want to go back to the
old setup.
- On your iOS device, tap on Settings ‣ Mail. For each of your
accounts, tap on the account name. At the top of the account settings it
should say IMAP or Exchange. If it says POP, you will need to
deactivate that account on the iPhone (by sliding the switch next to the
Mail setting) and then choose Add Account to re-add your account
as IMAP or Exchange.