When you use a program or app such as Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail on your computer or mobile device to access your email, you are using the Runbox IMAP or POP services.

We officially launched our new IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and POP (Post Office Protocol) services in August 2015.

Our aim is that all customers should be using these services by the end of August 2017 so that we can retire the old services that we are no longer developing further.

Note: If you only use the Runbox webmail to read and send mail, and do not use a mobile phone, desktop or laptop computer, iPad or other tablet device with your Runbox account, then you do not need to read this help article.

Do I need to check my settings?

You need to check your settings for IMAP or POP if any of the following statements apply to you:

  1. You set up your computer program, phone or tablet before August 2015
  2. You receive an email from us notifying you that we believe you are using our old services
  3. You know that your settings use secure.runbox.com as the incoming mail server
  4. You know that your settings use an IMAP Path Prefix that is set to “INBOX”

How do I check my settings?

You can check your settings by following the steps shown for your email program in the guide below:

You may not know whether you are using IMAP or POP at this stage which is why we’ve included both in the guide.

Note: You may have received an email from us about these changes, and this will tell you if we believe you are using IMAP or POP.

Do I need to change my settings?

When you check your settings, you need to look for two particular things:

  1. secure.runbox.com (as the incoming mail server)
  2. you have an IMAP Path/Root path set as “INBOX”

If you find either of the settings above you need to make some changes.

How do I make the necessary changes?

Getting started

  • You should always have backups of files on your computer, phone or tablet in case of unexpected problems. Runbox does make daily backups of your email in case something goes wrong (unless you have asked us to turn this facility off).
  • In the majority of cases the changes you make will cause all email in your account to be downloaded again
  • We recommend that you don’t make these changes when on a mobile phone data connection as it may use a significant proportion of your data allowance or even cost your more if you exceed your data plan allowance.

You need to know whether you are using IMAP or POP before you decide how to make the changes to your settings.

Note: You may have received an email from us about these changes, and this will tell you if we believe you are using IMAP or POP.

Looking in the settings of your email program on your computer, phone or tablet will tell you whether you are using POP or IMAP. If you are still not sure, checking whether mail is stored on our servers or locally on your computer can also help identify if you use is POP or IMAP.

Checking if you store your mail on our servers or locally on your computer

Note: It is recommended that you check whether mail is stored on our servers or locally on your computer even if you already know whether you use POP or IMAP.

We need to be clear about the language we use in this section.

Mail stored on our servers = mail stored in our data center that can be viewed using our webmail service

Mail stored locally = mail stored only on your computer, phone or tablet device

It’s important to understand our use of these phrases because we make different recommendations depending on which situation applies to you. It is even possible that a mixture of “mail stored locally” and “mail stored on our servers” applies in your situation.

It is important to check whether you are storing all your new and old email on our servers, locally on your machine or both before you make any changes.

You can check if you store all your email on our servers by logging in to the webmail service at https://runbox.com and looking at the messages in the various folders. The webmail only shows messages stored on our servers.

Please read the three statements below, and decide which one best matches your circumstances.

IMAP: If you see all your incoming messages in your Inbox and all your sent messages in your Sent folder (or a Sent Messages folder) and you know you sent them from an email program, phone or tablet device, then you are almost certainly using IMAP.

  • If you are using IMAP correctly, it means all your mail is being stored on our servers, and unless you have asked us to disable backups we should also have most of your email securely backed up for you.

POP (leaving messages on the server): If you see some or all incoming messages in your Inbox, but no messages in the Sent folder or a similarly named Sent folder then you are probably using POP and your email program is leaving some or all messages in the Inbox after they are downloaded. If you use more than one device you will probably find you can only see Sent messages on the device you sent them from.

  • If this is what you find, then the chances are that your Sent messages are actually stored on your computer, phone or tablet. Some or all of Inbox is stored on our server, plus messages are also stored locally on your computer.

POP (deleting messages on the server): If you see no messages in your Inbox and no messages in a Sent folder of any kind, you are probably using POP and your email program is deleting messages from the server once they are downloaded. If you use more than one device you probably find you can only see Sent messages on the device you sent them from, and possibly you only see incoming messages messages on the device you first read them on.

  • If this is what you find, then the chances are that your Incoming and Sent messages are only stored locally on your computer, phone or tablet.

Recommended Actions

IMAP: It should be safe to remove the account from your email program and devices and add it back. It should also be safe to just change the required settings if you feel confident to do that (see below). However, changing the settings can sometimes lead to confusion in an email program and you might see unexpected results.

POP: We would recommend that you change the settings on your devices rather than removing the account in this case. If you intend to remove the account from your computer you will need to make sure you copy any Incoming and Sent messages to a local folder on your computer, phone or laptop that is not part of your Runbox account. This is so they are not lost when you remove the account.

Making the recommended changes

Removing your IMAP settings:  To remove your account and add it back, you can use our normal set up guides to get yourself up and running again.

Changing existing IMAP settings:  If you are confident you can change your IMAP settings without removing your account, you may do this and we have a guide for this at the link below.

Changing existing POP settings:  If you modifying your existing POP settings, please use the guide below.

After you have changed your settings

Once you have changed the settings or removed and added your account back, you should restart your email programs so they can update.

In the majority of cases this will cause all email in your account to be downloaded again, and as such we do not recommend you do this when on a mobile phone data connection as it may use a significant proportion of your data allowance or even cost your more if you exceed your data plan allowance.

Getting Help

If you need help with any of these instructions, please contact Runbox Support.