Sonic.net

Hello:

How do I clear my webmail off of sonic's server after I download it to my Apple mail? (For some reason, my Apple Mail does not give me the option to "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message" for my Sonic.net webmail account, perhaps because it is an IMAP account. POP accounts such as those with ATT.net do offer me the option to "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message".)

Please advise.

Thanks!

David415

IMAP keeps your messages stored on the server and accesses them when needed. This has a few benefits, like being able to access those emails from any device with an Internet connection and not losing emails if a device crashes and ends up with corrupt data.

POP downloads emails to the device itself, which is why there is an option to delete emails after downloading. POP is a little trickier to use with multiple devices and since you are clearing our server, data backup is completely out of our hands.

That being said, our email server supports both IMAP and POP, so you can set up your client however you choose. Our POP server is pop.sonic.net and uses port 995 if you choose to set it up.

Thank you for your reply! How do I change the Account Type from IMAP to POP? Will it change automatically if I change the port number?

Suggestion: see if Apple Mail allows you to create "local folders," or something similar. If so, you can move the mail from your main folder to local folders, which should remove it from the server.

Actually, I just did a web search, and what you need to do is invoke the Mail menu option Mailbox -> New Mailbox, and set the "Location" option to "On My Mac."

Thank you for your reply. I currently have a mailbox entitled "Sonic" on my Apple mail, which has webmail downloaded to it using IMAP settings. If I create a new mailbox with POP settings, will I then have duplicate mailboxes: IMAP and POP? (I would not want that, especially if it means duplicate sets of old webmail, which may or may not be identical so I would have to keep both or risk deleting important email if I delete the entire IMAP mailbox.) Is there a way to change the Apple mailbox with IMAP settings to POP settings?

What I suggested is creating a folder on your Mac, to which you can move messages from the "Sonic" folder. That way, messages you no longer need on the server can be moved there (which removes them from the server); other messages can remain on the server while you might need to access them from multiple devices.

VirtualMike:

(Can you be more specific about the type of folder you are proposing? My Apple Mail already has a Sonic folder and all the sub-folders that are on my webmail.)

Also, will my problem be solved if I change the Internet Accounts "Hostname" from imap.sonic.net to pop.sonic.net, and then change the port to 995?

David415

David, I don't know how to explain it any more clearly.

In Apple Mail, in the Mail menu, choose option Mailbox, then New Mailbox. Since I don't have a Mac or Apple Mail, I don't know what else it asks for, but the web searches indicate that you need to set the "Location" option to "On My Mac."

Perhaps call it something other than Sonic, as Sonic appears to be the folder that represents your Sonic mailbox, including the various subfolders. Maybe call it Local Folders? (FWIW, that's what Thunderbird calls the folders that I create that aren't stored on Sonic's servers.)

Once you create that new folder, you can then drag the mail from the Sonic folder(s) to the new folder (and any subfolders that you create). That will remove those messages from Sonic's server.

I honestly don't know whether changing the settings will achieve what you want. I know that in my mail program, if I set it up as an IMAP mailbox, simply changing the server settings will not have the desired effect, because it still will be trying to access the server and port using IMAP commands. It would be like changing a programmed number in a fax machine to someone's cell phone. The fax machine will still be trying to talk to a fax machine, and the person answering the call will get frustrated because the other end keeps sending squeals and squawks down the line.

virtualmike:

I did exactly as you "clearly" explained it but my webmail did NOT clear off of Sonic's server but now I have TWO sets of the SAME email in Apple Mail: in my Inbox AND in Local Folders. Is there someone else at Sonic that can actually help me?

David

Are you sure that you MOVED the messages as opposed to COPYING the messages?

That being said, at this point, you should be able to delete the messages from Sonic's server. To ensure that things are set up properly, delete just one message and ensure that it gets deleted from the Sonic folder but not from the local folder.