Overview

Email programs connect to email accounts using one of three main methods; POP3, IMAP, or Exchange.

Using POP3 moves emails off of the server and onto your computer, and was the usual choice in the past.
IMAP is more popular and convenient to use these days as it leaves emails on the server and syncs them between your devices.

If you currently use POP3 and want to instead use IMAP to be able to sync your emails between devices, you will have to complete a “POP-to-IMAP” conversion.

This article covers the basics of how to complete such a conversion, and is specific to Outlook for Windows.

This article is only meant to serve as a general guide
We strongly recommend engaging with an IT Support provider for further assistance, as Conetix’s Support Team is unable to assist with this process further than providing the below steps.

Guide

  1. Ensure you have a backup of your emails, as if anything goes wrong you may need to restore from your backup.
     
  2. Export a .PST of your email account by following the steps in this article:
    https://conetix.com.au/support/importing-and-exporting-outlook-data-files/#exporting
     
  3. Once the .PST file has been successfully exported (may take a while depending on how many emails need to be exported), create a new Profile in Outlook and re-add the email account using IMAP via the steps in the following article;
    https://conetix.com.au/support/outlook-creating-new-mail-profile/
     
  4. In the new Profile, Import the .PST file back into your email account via the steps in the following article;
    https://conetix.com.au/support/importing-and-exporting-outlook-data-files/#importing-method-1-import-emails

Import & Upload Times
The Import may take a long time – possibly even multiple hours, depending on how many emails need to be imported.
Once emails are imported into the IMAP account, they will then be automatically uploaded to the server.
Uploading may also take a while depending on the amount of data imported and your internet Upload speed.

  1. Check and confirm that the emails have all been imported without issue.
     
  2. If needed, you may need to re-set-up your Email Signatures again via the steps in the below article from Microsoft;
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-add-a-signature-to-messages-8ee5d4f4-68fd-464a-a1c1-0e1c80bb27f2
     
  3. If you had any other unrelated email accounts set up in your old Outlook Profile (eg, a personal gmail.com email address), you will need to re-add them to Outlook again.

This concludes the POP-to-IMAP conversion guide. In most cases this should complete without issue, however if you run into any issues or questions we recommend speaking with your IT Support provider for further assistance.

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