Postbox makes a great desktop companion for your mobile e-mail app and provides lots of features that go beyond what any mobile app (on Android or iPhone) can offer. Getting the mobile app and Postbox working together is simple.
There are two different e-mail protocols you might be using on your mobile device: IMAP or POP. They have different pluses and minuses, as described here. We strongly recommend IMAP whenever possible.
IMAP E-mail Accounts
If an e-mail account uses IMAP, everything lives on the provider’s server, which makes things especially easy. When you add an IMAP account to Postbox, all of its folders appear in Postbox automatically. And whenever you make folder changes anywhere, they’re reflected in both the mobile and desktop environments seamlessly. (In Postbox you have the option of hiding—or “unsubscribing from”—folders you don’t want to see without affecting what you see in your mobile e-mail.)
POP E-mail Accounts
If an e-mail account uses POP, folders may be stored locally on your devices instead of the provider’s servers. This allows you to have local folders for your mobile e-mail client and local folders for Postbox. With POP, neither e-mail program can see the other’s local folders. The only exception to this is your Inbox, which appears in both your mobile client and Postbox.
With POP accounts, you may experience some inter-app confusion, leading you to wonder, for example, where an e-mail you sent from your mobile device got to when you’re digging through Postbox’s Sent Mail folder. You can make accommodations for POP synchronization issues like this using Postbox’s folder-mapping feature.
Filters and Rules
An e-mail app such as Postbox or Apple Mail may offer its own filters, or “rules,” that are automated operations to be performed on incoming e-mails. When you’re dealing with two e-mail apps, just remember that each of these filter/rule systems work only within its program. On the other hand, filters or rules you create on on your provider’s server apply to the e-mails that you see in both your mobile e-mail app and Postbox.