convert a pop3 account to imap while preserving sorting/folder structure?

[petreza]

Hi,

I connect to an email server that allows both pop3 and imap. I use IMAP. When I receive an email that is on a certain subject I put it in the apropriate subfolder under Inbox. As soon as I do that the email is automatically sorted on the server and from there on my cellphone. Read/Unread status is also in sync.

My friend has been using the same server for years and has received thousands of emails. He has been reading them in Outlook (now 2010) using POP3 and has been sorting them into folders. Because he uses POP3 the sorting is only done locally and his cellphone/web-email-access do not see the sorting he has done on his desktop.

Is there a way to "convert" his account to IMAP while at the same time preserve the sorting he has already done on his desktop?

Thanks!

 

[xxEIEIOxx]

If using Outlook (or possibly any email client) you cannot change a POP3 account to IMAP. The way I would do it is to remove the incoming server from the POP3 account so it will not download any more email and add an IMAP account. Then drag your personal folders from the POP3 to the IMAP account. Maybe 1 folder at a time so it does not time out. When you are finished and sure everything is on the IMAP server you can delete the POP3 account.

 

[petreza]

Thanks! Let me verify:

The server we are using uses the full email address as the account name. Lets say my friends email address is [email protected] and he has 9 emails in his SERVER inbox:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 - all emails are in the same folder (INBOX) there.

Also lets say that he has downloaded all 9 emails with Outlook using POP3 and sorted the last 6 into 3 subfolders like this

INBOX:
1,
2,
3,
SubFolder1
---4,
---SubFolder2
------5,
------6,
SubFolder3
---7,
---8,
---9,

What you are saying is to disable the old account in Outlook and create a new (blank) account like [email protected], connect to it using IMAP, and then drag-and-drop the folders from the old account into the INBOX folder under the new. Will that actually upload the emails to the server so that they are visible on his cellphone?

What if we disable the POP3 access in Outlook by renaming the old account to [email protected] and then create the new IMAP account with the proper email address [email protected]. If we do that and then drag-and-drop the folders will it sort the emails on the server without uploading them since they are already in the INBOX of the account?

Thank you very much for your help!