What does pop mean in mac mail

In Mac Mail, "Pop" refers to a type of email account that uses the Post Office Protocol (POP) to retrieve email messages from a mail server.

Here's how it works:

1. When you set up a POP email account in Mac Mail, your email client connects to the mail server using the POP protocol.
2. The mail server sends your email messages to your Mac Mail client, which then downloads them to your local machine.
3. Once the messages are downloaded, they are removed from the mail server, so you can only access them on your local machine.

The main difference between POP and other types of email accounts, such as IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), is that POP only downloads email messages to your local machine, whereas IMAP leaves a copy of the messages on the mail server.

Here are some key characteristics of POP email accounts in Mac Mail:

• Email messages are downloaded to your local machine and removed from the mail server.
• You can only access your email messages on your local machine.
• You may need to manually check your email account for new messages, as POP doesn't automatically check for new messages.
• POP is generally less secure than IMAP, as your email messages are stored locally on your machine.

If you're using a POP email account in Mac Mail, you can configure your account settings to specify how often you want to check for new messages, as well as how long you want to keep messages on your local machine.