What’s the difference?
When you use IMAP you are accessing your inbox on the central mail server. IMAP does not actually move messages onto your computer. You can think of an e-mail program using IMAP as a window to your messages on the server. Although the messages appear on your computer while you work with them, they remain on the central mail server.
POP does the opposite. Instead of just showing you what is in your inbox on the mail server, it checks the server for new messages, downloads all the new messages in your inbox onto your computer, iPad or mobile phone, and then deletes them from the server after download or the set number of days that you specify within your settings. This means that every time you use POP to view your new messages, they are no longer on the central mail server. Figure 1 illustrates these concepts.
IMAP
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POP
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Figure 1: Accessing your inbox, IMAP versus POP.
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IMAP makes it easier to view mail from home, work, and other locations
Because IMAP leaves all of your messages on the central mail server, you can view these messages from any location with Internet access. This means the e-mail inbox you view from home will be the same one you see at work.
Since POP downloads new messages to your computer and removes them from the server, you will not be able to see those new messages on another computer when you check your inbox. Those messages exist only on the computer that downloaded them using POP.
However, if you use IMAP and create e-mail folders on the server, these folders are accessible from anywhere you read your e-mail using IMAP. If you use POP and create e-mail folders, they are stored locally, and you cannot access these folders from anywhere except the computer on which you created them.
You have a backup of your e-mail with IMAP
The IMAP central e-mail servers are backed up and thus will not crash. If you use a POP e-mail account, you lose your mail if you have a virus or major computer crash. We can not help you recover these messages.
Source Article: http://www1.umn.edu/adcs/guides/email/imapvspop.html
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