The difference between POP and IMAP

This article explains the different ways to configure Yahoo! Mail within your mobile device's mail client.

There are two ways that Yahoo! Mail can be configured within the mail client on your mobile device: using your carrier's IMAP servers or Yahoo!'s POP servers. Depending on which type you use, you will experience different interactions between your device and your  Yahoo! Mail account.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol):

When you set up Yahoo! Mail using the mail client on your mobile device, it automatically uses IMAP servers to sync your phone's mail client to your Yahoo! Mail account. This means the emails are retrieved on the device and remain within your Yahoo! Mail account. Both (webmail and device) will mirror each other. What this means is that if a message is deleted from your phone, the message will also be deleted from your account. Likewise, when changes are made in your Yahoo! Mail account, the changes will be reflected on your device. IMAP servers sync your device and account constantly, so they are the same.

Read about necessary settings to use IMAP on your mobile device in the help article, How to set up IMAP on your mobile device.  If you have specific questions about how to set up IMAP on your mobile device, please contact your wireless carrier. They have the most accurate information regarding the configuration of their products.

POP (Post Office Protocol):

Please note: this feature is available only to Mail Plus subscribers. For more information on Mail Plus, please visit this webpage.

Another option is using POP servers to retrieve messages from your Yahoo! Mail account. POP servers work by pulling all of the messages from your Yahoo! Mail Inbox to your mail client. If you do not configure your device to leave a copy of the messages on our servers, your Yahoo! Mail account will always appear empty, and all messages will appear to go directly to your device. To learn how to configure your mail client to leave a copy of messages on our servers, please contact your carrier. They will know best how to enable this function on their devices. Once you have configured your mail client to leave a copy of messages on our server, you will have copies of messages in your account and on your phone. These copies can be modified independently of each other. Therefore, if you delete an email from your device while using POP, the message will still be retained in your Yahoo! Mail account.

Learn how to access POP on your mobile device in the help article, How to set up POP access on your mobile device. Please contact your wireless carrier if you need help entering these settings into your mobile device's configuration.