Microsoft Outlook on two PCs

[roguerower]

I have a laptop which I use as a mobile workstation for school and a desktop which is my primary computer. Currently I have MS Outlook setup on the desktop and whenever I check my mail it downloads all the emails from my school email account to Outlook, thus removing those emails from my school email account. This is ok but it can get somewhat frustrating when I need to check an old email on my laptop and don't have access to my desktop.

Is there some way I can make it so that both computers sync with each other after the desktop pulls the emails from the email account?

What happens if I were to add a Blackberry to the equation? How exactly does that work?

 

[Dahak]

Well for the email between the desktop and laptop, you can set it to say to leave a copy of the email on the server for 1 day(or what ever you choose) and that way the same messages will come down to both the laptop and the desktop.

As for the blackberry.. not familiar with them

 

[Czar]

redirect the mail to gmail?

 

[roguerower]

Originally posted by: Dahak
Well for the email between the desktop and laptop, you can set it to say to leave a copy of the email on the server for 1 day(or what ever you choose) and that way the same messages will come down to both the laptop and the desktop.

As for the blackberry.. not familiar with them

Alright, set that up...but what happens if I send a mail or delete the email from one computer...is there any way to sync them so the other deletes it too?

 

[xCxStylex]

I feel really stupid for not knowing if there's a way to synch both outlooks without running an exchange server :[ I don't believe there is though, to answer your first question.

Also, I'm not 100% sure about the blackberry either because you're not running a blackberry server either. If I understand what you're looking for, basically fulll synchronization, I do not believe a blackberry will help either without running exchange server.

What you could do is if you can redirect your school emails to gmail like what czar says, then the blackberry gmail app is exactly like your gmail inbox.

If you run a blackberry server, then your exchange mail gets pushed to your BB. You CAN set it so that your BB synchronizes with your outlook so that if you delete mail on your BB, it delets from exchange also. Otherwise, your BB just receives copies of your email.

Another neat thing of the BB, whether or your not you run a BB and/or exchange server, is that you can push your emails (such as gmail) to your BB inbox. Your mails will just be there, but again, you can run the really great Gmail app.

 

[armstrda]

seriously - GMAIL. Either that, or use GAFYD.

 

[redbeard1]

Synchpst

I have a laptop which I use as a mobile workstation for school and a desktop which is my primary computer. Currently I have MS Outlook setup on the desktop and whenever I check my mail it downloads all the emails from my school email account to Outlook, thus removing those emails from my school email account.

Set the desktop to leave messages on the server, and set the laptop to leave messages on the server for 10 days. This should get the messages to both computers, as long as the desktop checks messages within the 10 days.

 

[Nothinman]

Just use gmail. You can use it as an IMAP server on both Outlooks so all of your folders will be kept in sync and your BlackBerry can talk IMAP as well.

 

[rivethead]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Just use gmail. You can use it as an IMAP server on both Outlooks so all of your folders will be kept in sync and your BlackBerry can talk IMAP as well.

I apologize for the thread intrusion here.......but:

I've got Outlook 2003, gmail, and a Blackberry. I've got everything set up as IMAP, but something is amiss. When I have Outlook 2003 closed and an email comes into gmail, the Blackberry will pick it up. If I open and read the email (but not delete it), when I open Outlook it will not come into my inbox. I have to "Mark as Unopened" on my BB before Outlook will see the mail.

It's an odd problem that's driving me crazy.

After reading an email on my BB, I've logged into gmail directly and the message is in my inbox (just not bolded, which I'm thinking indicates it has been read). But if I open Outlook and hit send/recieve that message will not be pullled into Outlook. It just sits there. Other messages can arrive and will be pulled into Outlook, but the BB-read email remains in the gmail inbox.

Anyone know of a solution to this problem? The Sprint PCS CS people (BB is through Sprint) were simpathetic, but less than helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Nothinman]

I don't know, I have fetchmail pulling my gmail locally to my own mail server but my Storm picks up my gmail via IMAP just fine. It also grabs my work email via IMAP which is hosted on Exchange just fine.

Are you sure you don't have your BB setup for POP3 access to gmail?

 

[rivethead]

Positive. That's the first thing I checked.

Thing that's killing me is that I have three co-workers using the same setup (BB:Gmailutlook) and they don't have any issues.

I've got to think that it's a setting in either my Outlook or Gmail.........

 

[magreen]

rivethead, I'm interested in the answer too. Let us know if you figure it out please.

 

[roguerower]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Just use gmail. You can use it as an IMAP server on both Outlooks so all of your folders will be kept in sync and your BlackBerry can talk IMAP as well.

Know of a walkthrough that would walk me through it?

 

[Nothinman]

Know of a walkthrough that would walk me through it?

Which part? But I really don't know what the docs would say, forwarding your mail to gmail would depend on your provider and setting up Outlook and a BB for IMAP is pretty straight forward.

 

[roguerower]

I think I'm just confused on how this works...let me run through it

Gmail acts as my email account. I set it up as a IMAP server and forward all my misc. email accounts to it. It in turn recieves them and stores them. When either of my computers (PC or Laptop) access gmail, rather then dl'ing them to the machine and erasing them off gmail, they will just access them and store a copy on the machine. That way when I change something on one computer, the server will recognize that and change it on the other computer the next time I access it (gmail). Same thing goes w/ blackberry.

Am I close?

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, exactly. IMAP was designed to house your mail permanently, unlike POP3 which is just a download and delete protocol.

 

[rasczak]

i'm confused, are you using an exchange server or no? If you are, you might want to google cached exchange mode for outlook 2003/2007. This will download a copy of your mailbox to your client inbox, but keep all mail on the server.

 

[roguerower]

No exchange server. The way it was (I use was cause I signed up for gmail) is that I would recieve my email thru my school account. They have a very small storage space (10mb) so I had Office 07 Exchange set up as a POP3 account which would dl the emails to my main computer (desktop). This was great but as a student I take my old laptop to group work (which is extensive in my major) and was frustrated when I couldn't see my old emails cause they were on my desktop.

Toss in the blackberry I might get this fall to replace my aging razr and the problem was going to be very real.

I signed up for the gmail service, disabled pop3 and enabled imap, and set my school email account to forward all mail to my gmail account. So far so good. Gotta do some work when I get home but shouldn't be that much.

NEW QUESTION: Is there anyway to get the emails that I have on my desktop onto my gmail account? I only need the past couple of weeks but that could be 50-100mb of info. Also, when I have the imap server setup, say I get an email and for test purposes i have my laptop set up next to my desktop. If i press send/recieve on outlook on both of them, the email will pop up. If i press delete on the laptop, next time I press send/recieve on my desktop will the message be "deleted"?

 

[rasczak]

the stuff that's stored on your desktop is stored in a .pst file. i generally just copy the .pst from %userprofile%/local settings/application data/microsoft/outlook/Yourpst.pst

once you've copied the pst over to the laptop (you can place it anywhere, doesn't have to be in the same directory) open outlook > tools > email accounts > view or change existing email accounts > "new outlook data file" > click ok > and browse to the .pst you copied over > click ok.

when you open outlook again what you'll find in your mail section is another folder created with all of your old emails.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: roguerower
NEW QUESTION: Is there anyway to get the emails that I have on my desktop onto my gmail account? I only need the past couple of weeks but that could be 50-100mb of info. Also, when I have the imap server setup, say I get an email and for test purposes i have my laptop set up next to my desktop. If i press send/recieve on outlook on both of them, the email will pop up. If i press delete on the laptop, next time I press send/recieve on my desktop will the message be "deleted"?

If you have email that's currently on your desktop only (i.e. mail downloaded from a POP3 account), then it's not hard to get them into your GMail account. Just add the GMail IMAP account to the account list in Outlook, and then drag/drop the mail from your POP3 Inbox to your IMAP Inbox.

As for your delete question, yes. IMAP stores everything server-side. If it's read in one location, it's read in all locations. If it's deleted in one location, it's deleted in all locations.

 

[roguerower]

You guys have been more than helpful. I'll set everything up and see what happens.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: roguerower
NEW QUESTION: Is there anyway to get the emails that I have on my desktop onto my gmail account? I only need the past couple of weeks but that could be 50-100mb of info. Also, when I have the imap server setup, say I get an email and for test purposes i have my laptop set up next to my desktop. If i press send/recieve on outlook on both of them, the email will pop up. If i press delete on the laptop, next time I press send/recieve on my desktop will the message be "deleted"?

If you have email that's currently on your desktop only (i.e. mail downloaded from a POP3 account), then it's not hard to get them into your GMail account. Just add the GMail IMAP account to the account list in Outlook, and then drag/drop the mail from your POP3 Inbox to your IMAP Inbox.

As for your delete question, yes. IMAP stores everything server-side. If it's read in one location, it's read in all locations. If it's deleted in one location, it's deleted in all locations.

Wow, I learned something new today. Thanks GD.

 

[roguerower]

So got the server set up and running on both desktop and laptop and it runs like a champ. Really wish I'd know about this 2 or 3 years ago.

Only problem I'm running into now is that whenever i minimize outlook and then open it back up it goes straight to the regular inbox instead of the gmail one down at the bottom. Any way to set the gmail one to default (not default send/recieve, already did that)?

 

[GeekDrew]

Minimize? Really? I have that problem when I exit and re-launch Outlook, but I've never seen that happen when just minimizing/maximizing.

 

[armstrda]

Sure, just goto Tools - Options

Click on the Other tab, then click Advanced Options. In the first field there, click Browse, then select what inbox you want Outlook to start in on new instances.