I want to delete an email app from my phone but it deletes my emails from server and gmail etc

[#1]

I got a new phone and had to install an email app. I think it's called my.com or mymail. I don't like the app and want to delete it so I thought i'd delete the emails first. But when I did that it removed the emails from plusnet webmail and gmail too, which I didnt want. I then moved the emails in the app back from trash to inbox and they appeared twice in webmail. If I stop using the app after 190 days it says my mailbox will be blocked and info in my mailbox will be permanently deleted. Im too scared to just delete the app incase it deletes all the emails in webmail or deletes them after 190 days. It says on the app that it's unique in that it doesnt have IMAP or POP. (I dont know what that means). Is there anything I can do to get rid of this app but keep my emails in plusnet webmail server. If I just delete the app what do think will happen , will all the emails in webmail delete or delete after 190days or will they stay in webmail after 190 days. Also can anyone recommend an email app for my phone? I think I prefer IMAP, as even though i dont know what that means lol it's the one ive had pre isntalled on previous phones 

[#2]

Some applications of this ilk end up taking away your full control of things, especially where they poke their fingers into multiple email services.  I guess somewhere along the way you have given this application the user name and password for your Gmail and Plusnet mailboxes?  You are wise to be cautious here - it is not clear where your emails are now stored.

[Rhetorical question] Are they simply sync'd to your device (IMAP), or are the stored (harvested) in the my.com email service (POP3)?  "doesnt have IMAP or POP" simply does not make sense, for they are the only mail service access interfaces (protocols) to Gmail and Plusnet email.  That leads me to suspect that there is a my.com mail server involved in the mix.

If I were faced with this dilemma, I would approach it as follows

1. Access the various email services direct using a web browser and the webmail service provided by the mail service provider
2. Ensure that the separate mail services have all of the emails you expect to be there
3. If there are any in my.com which are not in their original service, use whatever means to get them moved from my.com to where they should be
4. CHANGE THE PASSWORDS on each of the mail services
5. Verify that my.com now "coughs" when trying to access the mail services - that is the application can no longer access those mailboxes
6. Delete the application
7. Then look at tidying up each of the email services via the web browser
8. Configure access to the mail boxes using an email client which leaves you in control - if an iPhone there is nothing wrong with iOS mail

POP3 or IMAP - if you do not understand the difference (and their potential complications) then just use IMAP.  If you want to access email on more than one device, using POP3 in the mix will give rise to complications.  Whilst some believe that this protects you from loss of email on the server, that is somewhat a lesser risk than losing all of the email due to an issue on YOUR device ... for which you do not run a sound back-up strategy.

With IMAP your mail remains on the server until you delete it explicitly.  If you lose the device, ditch the application (without deleting the emails), the emails will still be on the server, accessible by other devices or a replacement application.

With POP3 your mail is downloaded to the device and removed from the server.  If you lose the device or you decided to ditch the application (as here) you have a high risk of losing all of your email.

IMAP does require YOU to proactively manage the content of your mail folder - which you should do anyway.

HTH?

[#3]

Thank you so much for replying. Im useless with phones and computers! Normally when I get a new phone there is already an email app on it. The emails I expect to be there in plusnet webmail are there, but if I delete anything from the app it deletes it from webmail (and vice versa). I wanted to keep them in webmail for the time being so that I can respond,to them but as I wanted to get rid of the app I decided to delete them from the app first, but that deletes them from webmail too. 

I have an email client on my computer and the emails dont disappear from there when deleted from webmail or that app. On my old phone the emails disappeared from that when i deleted in the app but came back when i moved them to the inbox in the app.

Im going to change the passwords too but am really worried that I will lose total access.

Do you know of an app for Android that will support plusnet emails using IMAP? thank you

Sorry, I forgot to ask about changing the password - how to I do that? Do I change the password of my account and it automatically changes my email password or is there somewhere else I change it and I just cant find it? thanks

[#4]

That is the way IMAP clients work - delete in one place and they are deleted everywhere.  That is the way things should work.  If the my.com is a "proper" IMAP client, then deleting the app will do just that, delete the app and all LOCAL data, leaving the emails on the email server and still accessible by webmail.

From your description, it seems that either the computer is using a POP3 client with leave on server set or it has yet to do an IMAP resync.  As suggested before, using POP3 can lead to confusion.  Notably, emails you SEND from there will not be visible elsewhere.

Old phone sounds as though it had an IMAP client - delete from the INBOX, they get deleted on the server - restore from the deleted folder, they re-appear ... and webmail sees exactly the same.

With IMAP the emails are not on the device in isolation.  Effectively you have an off-line copy - anything you do on the app then gets re-sync'd to the server.  So you are not deleting "on the device" you are deleting from your mailbox residing on the server.

By the sounds of your follow-up description my.com is a straight-forward IMAP client.  Deleting the app (not the emails) should leave the emails where they are - on the server - and still accessible by webmail.

I have very little experience with the Android platform - my limited exposure to it (Amazon Fire) tells me it is not overly intuitive / user friendly.  The built-in mail app on the Amazon Fire seems good enough, but I do not know if that is specific to the AF or generic to Android.

Changing email passwords:

• Changing the password to the DEFAULT mailbox is achieved by changing the Plusnet account password - this will change the password used to log into the the user centre and that required in the router to connect to the internet.  If you are using a router supplied by Plusnet, that will update automatically, if not you will need to change the password in your router yourself
• Changing the password on a secondary mailbox is achieved by using MANAGE MY EMAIL within the user centre

[#5]

MyMail uses IMAP for “other” accounts.
To unlink your PlusNet email account from the MyMail app, you choose “log out” from the account section (not sure of the location of that on android version). Then you can safely delete the app from your device.

There are plenty of IMAP compatible apps on android. It is best to go with free open source apps as they don’t usually have ads or tracking in them.
The most popular two are K9 mail and FairEmail.

[#6]

Thank Townman you for all you help and time.

My computer is using IMAP (imap.plus.net)

I don’t understand how webmail works.

My old phone says IMAP too (imap.plus.net)

I don’t know why they stay on the computer but leave the phone.

The my.com – when you delete emails on the app the disappear from webmail too, which is quite alarming (to me anyway, as Ive never known that before).

I created a new yahoo email account just to test. I then changed the password using my computer. I then couldn’t get back into the yahoo account in the my.com app on my phone because I didn’t change the password, so that’s good news!

[#7]

Thank you RPM. It says Sign Out at the bottom left so I will try that (after saving any emails I need just in case) and then delete the app.

Do you know if I can put plusnet and yahoo emails in K9 or FairMail? And what would happen if I deleted an email from the app? Would it go from the webmail or server too?

[#8]

Ah yes, it was sign out rather than log out (should have taken a quick check first).

Yes both apps can work with PlusNet and yahoo mail. With a typical IMAP setup when you delete an email from one, it will be deleted from all. That’s how IMAP is supposed to work, i.e. everything is synchronised.