Please note that Comcast has not, to this point, made this ability to get an IMAP account widely known. For some odd reason, probably for provisioning of the IMAP server, they also ask you what state you're in (maybe it's just for validation that you are indeed who you say you are.). You will need to know your current account credentials, those being your account user name and password. Fortunately, there's no need to call Comcast you can make your request at (see image below). So to get on their "beta" IMAP service - which apparently has been around for a while - you need to ask for it. Should they decide sometime in the 21st Century to actually move everyone to IMAP, I'd be shocked. Request a Comcast IMAP accountīy default, you're still stuck with a Comcast POP3 account if you sign up for their service. Here are some instructions on what you other Comcastic customers can do to sign up for IMAP and set up your OS X and iOS devices (note that images and instructions below are written for OS X Mavericks and iOS 7).
What I found is that you need to fool the Apple email clients for OS X and iOS 7 into believing that you're NOT connecting to a Comcast server initially, because if you tell those clients you have a Comcast account, they decide to set your email client up with - you guessed it - a POP3 account.
After receiving notification that my IMAP account was live, I tried setting it up, only to run into issues. Well, I found out that they've been providing IMAP accounts on a ask-and-ye-shall-receive basis, so I quickly signed up for one. For some reason, Comcast seems to be stuck in the 1990s and wants to retain those stupid POP3 accounts. The only POP3 account that I still had as of last week was one from my ISP, Comcast. There are some other benefits to IMAP, but for most people, the constant need to make multiple deletions if they have more than one device is the main reason they detest POP3 email servers. What's the big difference between POP and IMAP? Well, if you're connected to a POP account and delete emails that have come into your Mac, when you get onto your iOS devices you'll find that those deleted emails are still there and you have to delete them again! With IMAP, delete once, and an email is deleted from all inboxes. Apple's email service uses the IMAP ( Internet Message Access Protocol) protocol for email, as do many other email services. For years, POP ( Post Office Protocol) email has been a thorn in my side.