If a client is using the POP3 email protocol to download email from a server to their email client locally, why would the email

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If a client is using the POP3 email protocol to download email from a server to their email client locally, why would the emails still be on the email server?

There are a few reasons why emails may still exist on a server despite users using POP3 to download their email. There is an option in both Microoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express to “leave a copy of messages on server.” This setting can be controlled by the user. If this option is selected, that user’s email will be available on the server. There may also be more than one computer or email client connected to the same email account on the mail server (web interface, Blackberry, etc.), each which can be setup with different configuration settings which affect this behavior; it cannot be assumed they all use the same delivery settings. If a user does not leave copies of emails on the server and does not use multiple devices to access his or her email, then typically the email that can be found on the server is whatever mail exists since the user last downloaded their email. Typically these amounts will be very small and short-lived. However, they may be found on back-up tapes depending on when the backup was made and the user’s activity at that time.

While there can be other causes for this, it is speculative to assert any of them here. If none of the above explanations are sufficient, a deeper investigation of the host mail servers would be in order to appropiately diagnose the cause.