Synchronization between webmail and iphone

@haz10 

I have always recommended that people not use POP3 and IMAP at the same time.  It causes a lot of confusion.  But on the score of the mysterious "Sent" folder-------I used to have iPhones.  Right now I have an Android model.  In my Comcast account I can see a folder called "Sent messages" that is not the default Sent folder in the Comcast webmail.  That folder was created by iOS/Mac Mail on the iPhone.  My setup is IMAP.  So even though the phone is long gone, I can still see those old sent messages from 2015/2016.  I can tell because I had never changed the default outgoing signature that says "Sent from my iPhone" in each one of them.

Just sayin

Thanks for chiming in @latoque. One always learns something, like learning that iOS created some of these "strange" folders on the iphone. Their staff insisted that all of these folders that I did not create and appear not to have a role, were created by Comcast....

As a customer in the middle, I have no way of knowing who creates what, and in principle I should not have to know as long as things work as expected.  However, in my case, the "who done it" has importance, because the mix of IMAP and POP on my iphone is the result of something done by one of the two vendors. I have nothing to do with it. The POP account was not there (just as there was no COMCAST account) until recently, I only had on my iphone an IMAP account for each of my email addresses. When I pursued the topic of synchronization of folders not working, the Apple senior advisor told me that I should delete the IMAP account on my iphone. The Comcast email expert stated that the POP account should be deleted. As I mentioned before, I am reluctant to just delete accounts that I did not create, without understanding the potential implications. Right now, the POP account on my iphone that I did NOT create, is the account where all the incoming email for my main email address is going. I do not know what would happen if I just delete it. Based on what I see, if a problem occurs, I will be left on my own and I would probably not be able to get real help from anyone. I do not want to create for myself more problems than what I already have. It would really behoove the two vendors to work out these issues and not let the customer hanging. Saying that "we do not recommend using 3rd party email clients" is not a good answer, just as claiming that everything is a Comcast problem is not a good one either.

One small piece of good news in this saga. Two days ago I reported that my iphone was showing an "account "error which stated: "Cannot get email. No password provided for "COMCAST". Please go to Mail Account Settings and enter a password". The screen capture that I tried to attach (and I can see as PRIVATE), still shows this error. It proves that I am not just day dreaming. The error message is no longer there, it went away "on its own"....  Great, one problem less, hopefully a permanent fix. Thanks to whoever took care of this issue, I cannot take credit for it.

Maybe focusing on the essential issue would allow Comcast staff to provide help for fixing folder synchronization between Comcast webmail and my iphone 8. So I will repeat the important information and try again to attach the relevant screen shots.

- in December, folder synchronization stopped working

- maybe around the same time, a new email account appeared in my iphone, called COMCAST, associated with my main email address and configured as IMAP. The INBOX in this email account has emails until 11/30/22.

- also new and not created by me, my iphone now has another email account, also associated with my main email address and configured as POP. It only has an INBOX and Trash folder. All incoming emails are now going into this INBOX.

Per XfiniyGabrielS, one should not have a POP account on the iphone. Can someone tell me where the incoming emails for my main email address would end up going if I delete the POP account? Would they by default end up in the COMCAST account's INBOX? I am concerned that if I delete the POP account, I would not get any emails on my iphone addressed to my main email address. I am attaching 3 files:  they show the contents of the COMCAST IMAP mail account and the content of the POP mail account, both accounts associated with my main email address.   Thanks.

@XfinityJessie, thanks. As I mentioned in this thread, syncronization between Comcast webmail and the iphone stopped working. I realized that when in December I created some folders in Comcast webmail (in My Folders associated with my main email account/address) and they never appeared in my iphone. Since then I periodically created test folders under the Inbox and also in My Folders of this account and synchronization does NOT happen.

Please read at least the prior post.  Please assume that I will delete the POP account (which now gets all my incoming emails for my main email address), as per XfinityGabrielS's recommendations and let me know the following:

- Will my incoming emails get to my iphone after the deletion of the POP account?  YES or NO

- Is there anything else I would have to do after the deletion of the POP account?

My case is not that simple due to the fact that one of the two vendors made some changes that resulted in the two accounts for my main email address: one IMAP called COMCAST and and a POP one. Unfortunately, the standard instructions you pointed me to do not provide the help and answers I am looking for and most likely nobody else but the vendors' staff responsible for email maintenance and support has the answers. Hopefully there is at least one person at Comcast who has answers.

As I mentioned it before, Comcast provides an interface to 3rd party email clients. Hopefully the vendors involved communicate with each other and do not just point fingers to each other leaving the customers in the middle with no help.

@XfinityJessie, thanks.I am not sure if you read my post as of yesterday with the 3 screen captures. As it mentions again (and again), as a result of a change I did not make, I now have TWO email accounts on my iphone for my main email address: an IMAP one called COMCAST and a POP one which receives now all my incoming mail.

Are you saying that if I delete the POP account I should see the incoming mail in the IMAP account (called COMCAST) configured for this email address on my iphone?

I am concerned about the potential impact of doing this not during the deletion of the POP account on my iphone, but after it.

You are asking: "Were you able to get logged into our webmail platform to test your ability to send/receive, your folder configuration, and your email settings? ". I mentioned numerous times that I created test folders in Comcast webmail and that synchronization of these folders to the iphone stopped happening as of December.  Obviously I had to be using webmail for doing this.

You are recommending switching from POP to IMAP.

On my iphone, all my email addresses were configured as IMAP until recently, when this strange configuration change that I have nothing to do with was performed. I would like to "undo" it, that's why I am asking you repeatedly the above question in red. Since I did not create these two accounts and I do not know why they were created, I do not know how to "undo" this without creating new problems.

On my iMac, all the same Comcast email addresses are configured as POP and things worked well. If I were to reconfigure these addresses as IMAP, I would have to first understand what would happen with all my emails now on my iMac (which are the most important assets on my computer), how would future synchronization work, etc. - which I have asked about many times and could not get answers for. I cannot afford to lose my emails.

As I mentioned before, folder synchronization between Comcast and the iphone and support of a 3rd party email client, is a two way street. It was implemented, it is maintained and supported by the two vendors, each of them having their own components, roles and responsibilities in order for this to work. Just telling the customers to talk to the "other side" doesn't address problems and doesn't help.

@again, thanks for taking the time to try to help. Unless you use Comments instead of Reply, I do not know about your post. As noted by many, notifications do not work for Reply.

I do understand the basics of POP3 and IMAP. I need POP3 for my iMac as I want all my emails on my computer. IMAP on my iphones, as it was since I purchased my iphone in 2018, is OK. Everything worked without problems ever since I have my iMac and my iphone until December, as configured years ago. I did not change anything. As a result, one of the vendors had to change something. As I mentioned, unfortunately the 2 vendors are disclaiming responsibility for synchronization and leaving the customer in the middle. They are equally responsible for it.

Just now, I managed to schedule an appointment with Apple for next week, to try to "troubleshoot" the iphone and see if they can help. At least one can have a session where Apple is on the phone and can share the screen, which is a lot more productive than maybe sending an email.  I will see what comes out of it, hopefully something better than what I have now.

Regardless how many times I asked for rules for synchronization between the Comcast server and Apple mail (to understand what to expect) I could not get any answers. Regardless how many times I explained and showed with screen captures what I see on my iphone and how many times I asked about what to expect if I delete the accounts I did not create, I could not get help. Generalities unfortunately do not address the problems I am experiencing. I do not believe that if the "experts" on both sides cannot help and cannot get insider info about changes their developers might have made or about bugs, then a hired outsider would know the answers and solutions. Also one should not have to hire and pay someone to debug issues created by the vendors.

Thanks, regardless. Have a nice weekend.

Update for anyone interested:

- with Apple's help I deleted one step at a time the two "strange" email accounts I did not create, that were associated with the same email address. First the IMAP COMCAST. When trying to create a new account, a POP account was created. There is NO choice for selecting the protocol for the incoming mail when one creates a new mail account on the iphone. I deleted the new account created as POP twice and the 3rd time it was created as IMAP, the protocol I was told to use on the iphone.   The advisor didn't know why this happened and how the interface between the client and the Comcast server decides which protocol should be used.

- then we deleted the POP account.

- I tested synchronization of folders and they worked. Incoming mail on the iphone also worked with one exception: emails sent from my main email address from my imac to myself never arrived to my iphone...  In addition, on my iphone, when I look at the first screen after picking MAIL, under Mailboxes I no longer see an inbox that displays incoming mail for ALL my email addresses. Instead it shows only a folder for incoming mail only for my main email account and a folder for Trash. Then it also displays the new mail account with the standard mail folders including an Inbox with the same emails as the other folder for the same account...

The Apple advisor will be getting back to me with some answers.

During testing I learned the following (for anyone interested about how apparently synchronization is implemented based on what I see):

- folders that one creates in webmail under My Folders are created and displayed for the respective mail account in the iphone along with that account's standard folders

- folders that one creates in webmail under the Inbox are not synchronized

- folders created on the iphone along with the standard folders are synchronized with webmail and the new folders are displayed under My Folders

- incoming, sent, trash and draft mail folders are synchronized between webmail and the iphone. What's in Spam in webmail appears in Junk on the iphone.

This was the information I kept asking for from both vendors but none of them was able or willing to provide it.

The main issue was fixed and I had hand holding during what had to be done: someone on the phone to talk to while also doing screen sharing on both the iphone and my imac. This is so much better and different than the kind of help one gets from Comcast...  I wish one could just call Comcast the same way I can call Apple and that support people had the same kind of tools to help end users. Hopefully I will not have to ask for more help in the future and nothing will be changed to create again problems.

Thanks to those on this forum who tried to help.

If by chance, someone on this forum uses Comcast, has more than one Comcast email account and has an iphone, please let me know if with ios 16.2 on the iphone you see under MAILBOXES an Inbox folder that includes mail from all mail accounts. I would appreciate the info.