Posted on 06/23/2015 5:27:38 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Have three computers two laptops and an Asus minipad with touchscreen. The laptops run Win7 and Outlook 2003, the minipad runs Win8 and Outlook whatever came with it.
Have my 5 email addresses on the two laptops and one of the 5 addresses is on the minipad.
I thought that all the mail would download to all the computers all the time. Not so. Some mail goes to one laptop some mail goes to the other lap top and some mail goes to the minipad. And some mail goes to all.
Talked to Time-Warner, the said it was an Outlook problem. Called the nice man at Microsoft and he said the Outlook 2003 was the problem and it was not supported. I told him I owned 2007 and could we pretend we were talking about 2007 and he said no.
I told him at least we could do is talk about the Outlook on the minipad and he said call Asus.
They aren’t answering.
Is there someplace I can go on Outlook 2003 and make all the mail go to all the computers all of the time?
I apologize, this is convoluted.
It is fixed! Please don’t bother them!
Oh No!
Can you UN PING?
It’s probably been said but it sounds exactly like one of the outlook clients was set up without checking the box that specifies whether the email is deleted on the server when a client downloads.
Let’s Emails 1, 2, and 3 are sitting on the server. Client A wakes up and says ‘oh time to download!” ... and downloads those mails. Let’s say this client A has been configured to NOT delete downloaded emails. So, emails 1, 2 and 3 are still sitting on the server. And ... email 4 arrives at the server.
Now email client B wakes up and says ‘Oh! Time to check for emails!’ .. and finds the 4 new (new to client B) emails on the server. It pulls them down. But alas, the little checkbox in the client’s configuration for that email account says ‘delete when downloaded.’
So ... bye bye 1, 2, 3, 4 on the server.
Now client C wakes up, checks. Nothing there.
All 3 clents have checked for mail but:
Client A only has and will only ever have 1, 2, 3.
Client B has all 4.
Client C will never see 1, 2, 3, 4. It checked too late to see they had ever arrived, and now they are deleted because of B’s configuration.
So, if you haven’t already -> go to the account configuration for each the email account (the one that’s been receiving all the emails is going to be the evil one, unless 2 of them are)... one of the tabs/options will allow you to either leave emails on the server after download, or discard them.
That may not be it, but it’s extremely likely given what you’re experiencing.
Good luck. If that’s what’s up, and you need all those emails to be recovered/present on ALL clients after you fix it, forward all the ones in question to yourself at that email, then they will all download (albeit as forwarded emails.) At least you’ll have all the original message content on all computers.
This is good to know, thank you!
Like your tagline.
Alas, no, the bell is rung... but this thread is actually a good source of helpful hints so I felt it was worth letting folks know, regardless of where it stood with regard to a solution to your particular dilemma.
The email problem you describe is a common one, and we all benefit from sharing our knowledge and experience.
Thanks.
Sort of like what is seen cannot be unseen...lol
The setup I use is: all but one of my computers/devices use IMAP only, and thus they never download or delete desirable mail from the server. They only view. I can use them to delete spam, and of course they can send, but they all always "leave messages on server" unequivocally.
One computer, my home desktop, is set to POP3, and it downloads the messages from the server. HOWEVER, it leaves them on the server for 60 days before deleting them from the server. That means that all my other IMAP clients have two months of "message history" always available.
Finally, on ALL machines, whenever I send a message, I include a BCC (blind carbon copy) to myself. This comes back around into the inbox, so that all the other clients will see a copy of the sent message. I use a filter to move the BCC copies into the Sent folder on the server. Then every client sees a coherent, complete picture of what has been received and sent.
I've been doing email since the mid-80's. This is the only sane way I have found to deal with a home desktop, a work desktop, two laptops, a phone, and a tablet.
Thank you again for your great explanation of the problem!
Thank you.
I gather then that each client leaves all the email on the server for its particular account? Not all the email for the other accounts too? So if I specify that Email 1 leave email for 7 days after download and email 2 leave email for 2 days post download both obey me?
Depending on what version of OUtlook you have, Account Settings will be under either the File menu or the Tools menu. Se;ect an account to edit. Under “More Settings” there is a dialog box with 4 tabs. The last tab is Advanced. Choose that one. There is a place at the bottom of that screen to leave a copy on the server. Every version of Outlook is a bit different.
if you have each email program removing docs from the server this is the behavior to expect. Change the settings to not delete the emails until the trash is emptied. Play with settings until you
since the responses seem to be a sea of confused unhelpful crap.
Lets start with the email types.
Your typical internet provider offers pop3 and online access. Imap generally is for corporate exchange severs where the company needs to retain the email do to federal record keeping laws (see Hillary Clinton). There are a few others but likely you don’t have them.
from outlook 2000 on multiple pop3 Imap and in the case of Hotmail/outlook.com can be intergraded into the pst file (the email database) the online email accounts need a piece of software, outlook connector to be in the outlook inbox. Google et al allow forwarding so non Microsoft email can be sent to any other account.
I would suggest however not to unify everything. if you get hit, you don’t want all your devices compromised. If you have good AV then for your portables use webmail. Where you need offline access use pop3 or imap. If you need to archive then dedicate one older system just for that.
Recently the mail setting for internet companies have been changing so you may need to find the port and encryption settings.
Thank you I use time warner.
Thank you I use time warner.
My situation (I described above) applies individually to each "account". Some of my simpler devices (phone, tablet) only have my primary personal account and my work account, and they're all IMAP. My main laptop has, in addition to those two accounts, two others that I use when traveling, also IMAP. And my home desktop has upwards of half a dozen, all set to POP3 since that machine is my "archiving" machine that maintains a stored message record all the way back.
You can certainly, if you wish, set the "leave messages on server" differently for different accounts, but be careful, since overlap can be surprising. If two clients are set to "leave on server 2 days" and "leave on server 7 days" respectively, the one that is set for 2 days will undercut the other and delete messages sooner than the other one wants. Be careful.
If you're using IMAP, all of this should already be in place, as IMAP is configured by default to connect to the server and maintain the connection while keeping the emails on the server. By the sounds of it, you've configured your client with POP3. You should contact your ISP or mail provider to find out if they support IMAP. That'll be a quick fix.
If they only support POP3, you'll need to configure each client to leave a copy of the email on the server. Here's a decent write up. I've not used Outlook 2003 in many moons, but I know this piece of information is in the same place:
Setting Outlook to Leave a Copy of Emails on the Server
Best of luck!
You need to set up all instances of your Outlook to leave a copy on the server (your choice of how long) for every account. Once the mail Client has acquired an email it is removing it from the server and none of the other clients will see it.
BTW this leaves you with multiple copies of the same email across your PC’s. If you reply on one, that history will not be on the others. You may be able to share your .ost and .pst files on the home network, but I think that could be a problem with multiple versions of Outlook.
The only problem I've had with it is with an Apple iphone. The phone places a copy of emails deleted from the phone in a folder on my ISP email server. I don't see this folder in Windows Live. I have to occasionally log on to the email account over the internet and delete these emails. Otherwise I get a "full inbox" message. I think it's an Apple "Cloud" issue, not a Windows Live issue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.