Every one of you would be having a Gmail ID. Though the Gmail can be accessed easily from a web browser, some prefer to have it configured in a mail-client like Microsoft Outlook. In this context, a Gmail user should know what is meant Gmail POP and Gmail IMAP settings. In this article we’ll deal with configuring your mail-client with Gmail as well as configuring other email account in Gmail.
What’s all about Gmail IMAP settings and Gmail POP settings?
When you access your mails through a mail-client, the Gmail server has to validate the user as well as ensure that the messages that are being transmitted to your computer are secure. Hence, Gmail also has a set of rules for communication between the Gmail server and the mail-client. These rule are defined as IMAP settings or POP settings. Based on the mode you intend to use, you may choose from IMAP or POP settings for the incoming mails.
IMAP would be the recommended option when you need to check your emails from multiple devices as it allows storage of mails in the server. This is especially important in today’s era where we synchronize our mails across multiple devices including smartphones. POP (short for Post office Protocol) downloads the email from the mail server to a single local file after which it deletes the downloaded mails from the server.
Enabling the Gmail IMAP settings in the mail server:-
Firstly, we have to make enable IMAP In the Gmail server settings. By default, it is disabled. To enable IMAP settings for Gmail:
- Log into your Gmail account (www.gmail.com). Make sure that you are in the “Standard view”.
- Go to Settings page by clicking the gear icon on the left top side of the page and click the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
- Under ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab, against “IMAP Access” make sure IMAP is enabled.
- Click “Save changes”
Now your Gmail account has been configured to enable retrieving messages using the Gmail IMAP settings (Protocol). If you wish to enable Gmail POP settings, the steps are almost similar, except that you will have to make sure that POP is enabled for the “POP Download” setting.
Configuring the mail-client to use Gmail IMAP settings:
Update the account settings of your mail-client with the following information. How you go to the account settings may differ for different mail-clients, please refer the respective ‘help’ documentation.
Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server: imap.gmail.com
Requires SSL: Yes
Port: 993
Full Name or Display Name: [your name]
Account Name or User Name: your full email address (including @gmail.com)
Email Address: your full email address (including @gmail.com)
Password: your Gmail password
These settings should help you configure your Gmail account in any device that has a mail-client.
Using Gmail with other accounts:
Gmail enables you to check multiple email accounts in the same Gmail Mailbox. Gmail’s Mail Fetcher feature imports all your messages from other accounts to Gmail and then on downloads new messages sent to them. To import mails from another e-mail account, you will have to first enable POP3 in that account. Once this is done, you can follow these steps to link it to Gmail.
- Open your Gmail account and at the top right, click the gear Settings.
- Select Settings > Accounts and Import tab.
- In the “Check mail from other accounts (using POP3)” section, click Add a POP3 mail account you own. Enter the full email address of the other account, then click Next Step.
- Enter your password for the other account.
- The following options have to be chosen based on your preference:-
- Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server – Check the box. Otherwise the emails in your other account will be deleted and you’ll only be able to access them in Gmail.
- Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail – Ideally keep it checked.
- Label incoming messages – Check the box if you’d like to identify these emails separately.
- Archive incoming messages – Don’t check.
- Click Add Account. Once your account has been added successfully, you’ll be asked if you want to be able to send mail as this address. This lets you compose messages in Gmail, but have the other email address in the “From” field.