IMAP - can I prevent deleting from computer when deleting from server?

[johnnylee]

Greetings. I'm getting my feet wet with IMAP and seem to have it working with messages synching between two computers and the server. But when I delete messages from the server, they end up being deleted from my computers as well. I'm just trying to avoid using up too much space on the server -- but I want to retain messages in my email clients on my computers.

I'm using Apple's Mail program. I was hoping to find a magic button in the settings there that would allow me to do this, but no luck so far.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em!

Many thanks in advance.

[Kevin]

I don't know Apple's email program but the general idea of IMAP is that the client is really a slave to the server and only caches messages locally for faster access. Usually, whatever messages are on the server are on the client and nothing else. The benefit is that other clients see the exact same email box with the same deletions.

[johnnylee]

Thanks for the quick reply! So if I want to empty the server but keep the messages on my computer, one solution might be to create archival folders in my email client and move the messages I want to keep over there, huh?