What is IMAP?

IMAP is an acronym that stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. More specifically, it's a mail protocol that permits an email client to access remotely-stored messages and folders as if they were local. Sonic recommends using IMAP to both minimize risk of lost messages and for its ability to keep your mail accounts synced across multiple devices.

What are the IMAP settings that Sonic uses?

Incoming Server: imap.sonic.net

Incoming port with SSL: 993

Incoming port without SSL: 143

Outgoing (SMTP) Server: mail.sonic.net

Outgoing port with SSL: 465

Outgoing port without SSL: 587

Please note that username/password authentication is required for both incoming and outgoing servers.

What is POP3?

POP3 is an acronym that stands for Post Office Protocol version 3. This is an older mail protocol that by default logs onto the remote server, downloads the messages to your device, and subsequently deletes these messages from the remote server, leaving your device to store the only existing copies of these messages. This is known to cause syncing issues when checking an account from multiple devices as well as greatly increases the risk of lost messages.

What are the POP3 settings that Sonic uses?

Incoming server: pop.sonic.net

Incoming port with SSL: 995

Incoming port without SSL: 110

Outgoing (SMTP) server: mail.sonic.net

Outgoing port with SSL: 465

Outgoing port without SSL: 587

Please note that username and password authentication are required for both incoming and outgoing servers.

What's the difference between IMAP and POP3?

With POP3 mail, each message must be downloaded and stored as a local copy on every computer that you use to access your email. When you get a lot of email, or access your email from many locations, managing your inboxes can start to get complicated. With IMAP, each computer accesses the messages that are stored on the server, and you don't need to download any local copies. The inbox for your Sonic.net account will look the same on your home computer, work computer, and every other IMAP-capable email device that you use.

Does IMAP or POP3 cost any extra to use?

Nope! Both services are available to anyone that has a Sonic.net mail account.

What are my options for IMAP mail deletion?

When you delete messages with IMAP, most email clients will place the messages in the Trash or 'Deleted Messages' folder. The messages in these folders will be automatically deleted after 14 days or when you tell your client to empty the trash.

Are any folders automatically expired?

Yes. The contents of 'Trash' and 'Deleted Messages' are automatically expired after 14 days. The Graymail folder expires in 7 days. If this is a problem, we suggest that you configure your client to use a different folder names for these functions. More information on Graymail and settings can be found here: https://help.sonic.com/Graymail

What are my options for POP3 mail deletion?

When an email client using POP3 tells our servers to delete a message, instead of deleting the message our servers move it into a special Namespace and folder. The contents of this special folder is automatically purged after 7 days. This allows any users to easily restore a lost message within 7 days of the time that it was deleted.

Do you provide support for the iPhone, android, etc?

Most modern mobile devices have built in support for IMAP servers are should work fine with your sonic.net IMAP account. It is strongly recommended by Sonic that you use IMAP on your mobile devices.