Dan Youngquist via tde-users wrote:
And yet, one of its main functions is to download mail locally and keep it synchronized with the server. It also makes it really easy to upload mail that's stored locally back to the server to transfer to another computer (or mail program on the same computer).
if you know that much, why asking? I do not think you understand imap correctly but I do not want to argue with you. Yes, it is saving locally, but it is part of the KMail/IMAP functionality. AFAIK it is used to sync up with the server. This is transparent to you as a user. All you need is to configure your account. IMAP itself is not saving any messages locally. On the server side however you can choose the mailbox type (backend) - Maildir or DB or whatever.
You can have a look at the import wizard in kmail and read the instructions there. Also I found imapsync very useful for handling IMAP mailbox backups. We actually migrated 10x millions mailboxes with it.
You can actually use both clients with same effect.
And at the same time, whether on the same computer or multiple computers, which is really handy if you regularly use multiple computers.
The phone and the PC at least.