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Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]

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Tip 1058: Outlook and POP3 support in Windows 8

Windows 8 start screenBased on the number of questions I'm seeing, there is a lot of confusion about Windows 8's lack of POP3 support.

The Windows mail app that you see on the Start screen does not support POP3 accounts. If you are using the Windows 8 Mail app, you need to use IMAP or ExchangeActiveSync for email.

Unfortunately, many new Windows 8 users think it means is that Windows 8 doesn't support POP3 at all. This is not true; only the mail app that ships with Windows is affected.

Outlook, Live Mail Essentials, Thunderbird, or any other mail client that can be installed on the Windows 8 desktop can have POP3 accounts in their profile.

POP3 support was not included in the Windows Mail app because IMAP and ExchangeActiveSync sync the contents of the mailbox to the computer, generally giving the user a better experience when the mailbox is accessed from more than one computer. Changes sync back to the server – read state, deleted items, replies, sent items – so all computers are identical. While this may be less important with desktop computers, if you have Surface or other tablet device, keeping the mail on the server and syncing to all computers is convenient.

Published January 22, 2013. Last updated on January 22, 2013.

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