This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Changing an existing account from POP3 to IMAP

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by ddavid55

more options

I have a live.com email set-up on Thunderbird and have been using for 3 years. Recently Microsoft changed protocols from POP3 to IMAP. I created a new account using the same email address, but set-up in IMAP so again able to send and receive email. However I now have a dormant POP3 account that I do not want to delete. I would like to know if there was a way to edit the original account to IMAP. I was able to change the field, but it still shows POP3 above the box in settings. Also the port field was updated, but still shows as 995 instead of 993. Any assistance is appreciated. Also I use Mozbackup regularly.

I have a live.com email set-up on Thunderbird and have been using for 3 years. Recently Microsoft changed protocols from POP3 to IMAP. I created a new account using the same email address, but set-up in IMAP so again able to send and receive email. However I now have a dormant POP3 account that I do not want to delete. I would like to know if there was a way to edit the original account to IMAP. I was able to change the field, but it still shows POP3 above the box in settings. Also the port field was updated, but still shows as 995 instead of 993. Any assistance is appreciated. Also I use Mozbackup regularly.

Chosen solution

No, you can't change the original account from POP to IMAP. But you can get the old messages and folders from the POP account into the new one, which I assume is what you want to do: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

No, you can't change the original account from POP to IMAP. But you can get the old messages and folders from the POP account into the new one, which I assume is what you want to do: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account

more options

Thank you, very helpful and exactly what I was looking for.

Regards, Darryl