09.29.05

IMAP and Apple Mail

Tagged as Software

Recently I decided to switch from a POP3 email setup to IMAP. Fortunately, most of the pieces were already in place: when setting up my server I followed the Gentoo Linux Virtual Mailhosting System with Postfix Guide, which includes both POP3 and IMAP servers, and I knew the IMAP server was working because SquirrelMail worked. What I wanted was for SquirrelMail to contain all of my old email, rather than just the new stuff. This was partly because I’m planning on upgrading to Tiger soon and want the transition to be as quick and easy as possible, and partly because every time I tell someone who’s using my server for email how to access the webmail client, I have to explain again that they won’t be able to access email they downloaded a month ago. Before I suggested that anyone else use IMAP, I had to try it myself.

For the most part, the switch was completely unremarkable. I set up a new account for the IMAP server in Apple Mail, using the same settings as the POP3 version, and then disabled the POP3 account. I also clicked a few boxes in the settings of the IMAP account to save Drafts, Sent Items, Junk Mail, and Trash on the server (and to delete the latter two categories after a week). I hit send and receive, and got no errors. I sent a test message to myself, and received it. I logged into SquirrelMail and saw the message. I deleted the message in Apple Mail, refreshed SquirrelMail, and saw that the message was gone. Next I dragged all my folders of archived mail on top of the IMAP server entry in the Apple Mail mailboxes drawer and watched Mail copy all my old messages to the server. I refreshed again in SquirrelMail and saw that all my folders were there, and the messages within them were accessible.

The only problem was that my sent test message wasn’t showing up in the Sent Messages folder of the IMAP account, and deleted messages weren’t showing up in the IMAP Trash. In fact, I couldn’t find them anywhere at all. A little digging revealed that once you’ve chosen to store these items on an IMAP server, you have to tell Mail where to store them — it won’t just use a pre-existing folder with a correct-sounding name. In the Mailboxes drawer, I selected each appropriate folder and chose the appropriate category from the Mailbox -> Use this mailbox for… menu. Now my Trash, Sent Items, Junk Mail, and even Drafts are saved on the server for me so I can use them from anywhere via webmail.

If you have an email account on my server, you can do the same — feel free to ask if you need help.

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