PN are oversimplifying the advice for non-techie readers... there's nothing wrong with that... We of course know that you can sync and enable off-line reading of IMAP connected mailboxes.

What's the point of making untrue blanket statements when the simple addition of the word 'usually' will render it accurate for everybody?

I don't 'of course know'; that is why I'm asking! Not sure you have answered it. Haven't used IMAP for nearly 10 years.

Agreed - but its a pretty trivial statement so I'm not too hung up about it, I would have expected the rest to be common sense. I have to say I am quite surprised you don't know that IMAP folders etc can be saved for offline reading - mail client dependant of course (just like POP3).

Edited by Pipexer (Thu 26-Dec-13 16:26:50)

As I said I couldn't remember, it's been so long, even tho' I was involved in implementing IMAP, and other, servers.

In your original post , you said it needed enabling. What needs enabling? Certainly not the server and I can't think of a client that needs anything special doing, once the IMAP a/c has been defined to it. The emails are either in the client or they are not.

By default usually they work in cached mode nowadays, so a copy of the email is held on the client, but the option is certainly available to not work in a cached mode, i.e., the headers are downloaded off the server and only when you click on the email the contents is downloaded, and therefore if you do disconnect from the internet, you won't be able to read any email messages. Very similar concept to newsgroups.

Ah, yes, I now remember them well from thenadays!

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

The emails are either in the client or they are not.

As you remind me, they can be half in the client

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 27-Dec-13 02:45:31)

I use Thunderbird on my PC and there is an option in the Accounts section to keep local copies, so for instance, I keep local copies of folders in my Personal Mail address, but not my Gmail one, which I use for buying things, forums etc.

This of course speeds up downloading of Personal stuff as well as it only needs to download new items, whereas my Gmail stuff can take a bit longer as it has to download anything that is not cached, this could be a bit tedious if you don't have a fast machine