Web mail and mail clients

#1

I have tried to google this but have clearly not found the right question to get an answer so another question which I know many of you will have a full and detailed experience of…

For years I have used web access for my email (bt). The key advantage has been that I could access my emails anywhere with any computer just by accessing the web page. However, these days and after changes at BT, it uses huge memory on my iMac desktop and with smart phones and tablets which we always carry with us whereever we go, nevermind much lighter laptops, I will always have an access machine with me.

Is it therefore worth just moving to a mail client like Mail on my Macs? Will my mail remain on the BTmail web page if everything goes wrong? Is Mail just a mirror of what is on my webpage or do i need to download everything and refile it in various folders?

Of course today another BT failure doesnt help!

I would be grateful for any thoughts. Many thanks

#2

It depends on the mail protocol. If a POP3 server then mail doesn’t stay on the server once you access it. However, most mail servers these days use the IMAP which keeps a copy on the mail providers server so you can access it from multiple devices.

You might find this webpage helpful https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/email/protocols-pop3-smtp-imap/

#3

Thank you for that. You can see I don’t have a handle on such things. The note was helpful and I tried all out and it seems to all work. My web mail box seems to be mirrored in my mail box so all good.

#4

Just a thought - I use BT and a Mac as well…used to be fine until I also accessed emails using my iPhone - now the BT site mirrors my iPhone and I have never figured out how to get all three to coincide (I don’t have a computer orientated handle either). But it might be worth checking that out as I find I can access/save everything on my Mac, but not everything and a different file structure on my iPhone.

#5

If they are all set for imap rather than pop3, then it should all be fine…

Best

David