Odds and Ends: Mail.app, .Mac handling IMAP protocol deficiently?

As pointed out by MacFixIt reader Scott Rose, it appears that Apple's .Mac servers handle the IMAP protocol in a fashion different from most other on-line e-mail service providers, effectively delaying server synchronization from within Mail.app (until the application is re-launched).

Rose writes:

"It appears that Apple's .Mac servers don't update instantaneously like other web hosting companies do when using IMAP accounts.

"For example, let's say that you have your .Mac account setup in Mail as a .Mac account (which is really an IMAP account). Then, if you create a folder that is 'On My Mac' and you move a message from your .mac inbox into that 'on my mac' folder that you created... you actually have to QUIT and RELAUNCH Mail in order for the .mac servers to actually reflect the change that you just made (i.e. moving the message off the servers and just keeping a local copy).

"Apple seems to acknowledge that issue here in a Knowledge Base article.

"However, this problem seems to be limited just to .Mac accounts. In our testing, IMAP accounts from other web hosting companies work instantaneously. In other words, as soon as you move a message, it reflects instantaneously on the servers of those web hosting companies."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Knowledge Base updates: