POP Email Downloaded to One Office Computer

Mail that lives on one desk

Years ago, someone set up the office email on the main computer. Outlook collected each message from the server, stored it on the computer's hard drive and deleted it from the server.

That arrangement is called POP, and it made sense when mail was read at one desk and server space was expensive.

It still works, which is why it survives. But the archive of quotes, invoices, client conversations and photos now exists in one place: a single file on one computer that may be seven or eight years old.

Microsoft's new Office and Outlook arrive today, and an upgrade, especially onto a new computer, is exactly when that file has to be found and carried across by hand.

What goes wrong with POP

• Phones see only part of the mail, whatever the office computer has not collected yet.
• Sent mail stays on the device that sent it.
• Folders and read marks exist only on the office computer.
• One hard drive holds years of correspondence.
• The host keeps no copy once POP deletes messages from the server.
• A new computer means moving the archive file by hand.

The second causes the most daily confusion. A quote sent from a phone on a job site never reaches the office's sent folder, so nobody at the desk can see what was promised, or when.

How to tell which you have

In Outlook on Windows, open File, then Account Settings, then Account Settings again. The Type column beside each email account says POP/SMTP, IMAP/SMTP or Exchange.

On an iPhone, go to Settings, then Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and tap the account. A heading reading POP Account Information gives it away.

An incoming server name beginning with pop is another clue. And if each device was set up by someone else, years apart, assume a mixture.

IMAP or hosted Exchange

With IMAP, the mail stays on the server, and every computer and phone shows the same folders, the same read marks and the same sent items. Most hosting plans include it.

Hosted Exchange, through Office 365 or a hosting company, keeps calendars and contacts in step as well as mail. Google Apps for Work does the same job on Google's systems.

An office that shares calendars or books appointments from phones belongs on Exchange or something like it.

An office that only needs its mail everywhere can do well on IMAP, with a mailbox large enough for its archive.

Back up the archive first

Before anything changes, copy the archive. In Outlook it is a data file ending in .pst, and Outlook shows where it lives under Account Settings, on the Data Files tab.

Close Outlook, copy the file to an external drive and check that the copy opens. Keep a second copy somewhere other than the office.

This is the step people skip, because the mail still seems to be there. It is the only one that protects against a mistake in every step after it.

A worked example

A moss removal company cleans and treats roofs across a wet suburb from October to April, with two crews and an office in the owner's basement. Quotes go out by email, usually with photos of the roof.

Its email was set up nine years ago on the office desktop, by POP, deleting from the server after download.

The owner's phone was added later, also by POP, and saw only messages the desktop had not yet collected.

Quotes sent from the phone stayed on the phone. Customers replied to quotes the office had never seen, and the office manager had to ask which price had been given.

Then one Monday the desktop would not start. A repair shop recovered the drive, and with it nine years of quotes and roof photos, but it was a close call.

The archive was copied twice before anything else. The mailboxes moved to a plan with more space, every device was set up again with IMAP, and the old mail was uploaded folder by folder over a weekend.

Moving the old mail onto the server

With the new account set up in Outlook alongside the old one, the old folders can be dragged into it and uploaded to the server.

Check the mailbox size limit first. Years of attachments can exceed a basic plan, and an upload that fails halfway leaves mail in two places and a muddle to sort out.

Upload in batches, recent and important folders first, and leave the computer on until each batch finishes. A large archive can take a day or more on an ordinary office connection.

Every device on the same account

When the move is done, remove the POP account from every computer and phone. One left behind can still collect and delete messages before anyone else sees them.

Set each device up with the secure settings the host supplies, so the password does not cross public Wi-Fi in readable form.

Then send a test from a phone and check that it appears in the sent folder at the office.

The server is not a backup

Moving to IMAP puts the mail on the server. It does not make the server a backup, and a message deleted on one device is deleted everywhere.

Ask the host what it keeps for mail and for how long, and arrange a separate backup of the mailboxes that hold the business's records.

The counter-case

A one-person business that reads mail only at one desk, with a backup routine that actually runs, loses less with POP than most. The risk is concentrated, not unmanaged.

Some basic plans offer mailboxes too small to hold a large archive, and for them the move may start with a plan change, which is a cost.

But once a phone is involved, or a second person, POP starts losing information quietly. Back up the archive, move to IMAP or Exchange, and put every device on the same account.

The order to do it in

1. Check the account type on every device.
2. Copy the archive file to two places.
3. Confirm the mailbox size the plan allows.
4. Choose IMAP or Exchange for the way you work.
5. Upload old folders in batches, newest first.
6. Remove POP from every device afterwards.
7. Send a test from a phone and check sent items.

Step two comes before everything else. Every later step moves or changes mail, and a copy that has been checked is the only thing that makes a mistake recoverable.

Separating mail and the website from an old internet bundle is covered in web space that came with the phone company package.

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