[chasg]

Hi All,

I've recently reactivated my long-dormant iMac account in order to take advantage of the ability to sync various apps between Macs: Mail and iCal.

I'm very pleased with how iCal syncs between two machines, exactly what I was looking for (both machines have identical sets of data after sync).

I was very much hoping that Mail would be the same: both machines would have duplicate copies of all data (all messages, accounts and attachments). That isn't the case, from what I can see, it looks just like account data is duplicated (all well and good if using IMAP, but no good for POP). Have I missed a setting, or is it merely account info that is sync'ed between two Macs?

If I can't use iMac for sync'ing Mail between two Macs, does anybody have any suggestions as to how I can actually do this? (and yes, I'm quite aware of the pitfalls of having two active email programs accessing the same pop and smtp servers).

Thanks in advance for any info,

Chas

[besson3c]

Why not check the "leave mail on server" option in your POP configuration?

Switch to IMAP if you can, it was built for this sort of purpose.

[chasg]

Hi besson3c, thanks for the reply.

I appreciate your reasoning, and I once used to use that very strategy waaay back when I got my first POP account (yikes, back in '94!). The primary problem is that the "sent mail" parts of the databases on two computers get out of sync, and it gets to be a bit of a nightmare figuring out what was sent from where, when :-)

IMAP is great for a network-connected computer, which my laptop is not when I'm out traveling. This happens to be the whole point of this exercise: I want my laptop to have an identical set of data with my desktop so that when I'm traveling I can communicate as if I were at my desktop (so that I can send and receive mail and so I can search on earlier sent and received messages).

Thanks for the help though,

Chas

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by chasg 

Hi besson3c, thanks for the reply.

I appreciate your reasoning, and I once used to use that very strategy waaay back when I got my first POP account (yikes, back in '94!). The primary problem is that the "sent mail" parts of the databases on two computers get out of sync, and it gets to be a bit of a nightmare figuring out what was sent from where, when :-)

IMAP is great for a network-connected computer, which my laptop is not when I'm out traveling. This happens to be the whole point of this exercise: I want my laptop to have an identical set of data with my desktop so that when I'm traveling I can communicate as if I were at my desktop (so that I can send and receive mail and so I can search on earlier sent and received messages).

Thanks for the help though,

Chas

It sounds like your solution is an email client that supports offline mail viewing. OS X Mail caches everything by default so that you can read your mail offline, even respond to stuff and have it queue in your Outbox until you go online again.

Thunderbird is even better, as you can select specific folders you want to make available offline. If you have a ton of stuff and you don't want your entire CPU pegged while OS X Mail insists on rummaging through your entire folder collection to sync, use Thunderbird.

[chasg]

Good info, thanks.

Yeah, one thing I do like about POP clients is having access to almost-full functionality when a computer is not connected to a network. From what you've written, it sounds like you're describing a mixture of IMAP and POP functionality, interesting (thanks for pointing out this feature).

Funnily enough, I was a beta-tester for Thunderbird way back when it was just hitting the scene. It looked promising, but I stuck with Eudora (from which I switched just recently when I moved to Mail, which I did because I incorrectly assumed that I could use iMac to sync everything from one computer to another :-/

Chas

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by chasg 

Good info, thanks.

Yeah, one thing I do like about POP clients is having access to almost-full functionality when a computer is not connected to a network. From what you've written, it sounds like you're describing a mixture of IMAP and POP functionality, interesting (thanks for pointing out this feature).

Funnily enough, I was a beta-tester for Thunderbird way back when it was just hitting the scene. It looked promising, but I stuck with Eudora (from which I switched just recently when I moved to Mail, which I did because I incorrectly assumed that I could use iMac to sync everything from one computer to another :-/

Chas

Yes, offline viewing does involve downloading of mail, so this is POP-like.. I never thought of it this way

Good luck!

[chasg]

Thanks again for the info and the help :-)

Chas

[ooninay]

I will add that Mail.app which caches mail by default, does this with IMAP accounts as well. So if you're already a .Mac subscriber, if you were to switch to using the .Mac mail account that comes with it (an IMAP account), you would have identical mail folders (including Sent mail) on both your computers because what Mail.app does is simply "sync" both local PCs with the mail that's on the .Mac server. When you send a message from one PC, it will (eventually) show up in the Sent mail folder of your other computer too. The whole system is really well implemented and hassle-free. I've used it on both my Macs for a couple of years and it's very reliable and convenient (like you, I insist that both my computers have complete copies of my e-mail). And because it caches all your mail locally, you can use your mail even when you're not connected to the network.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by ooninay 

I will add that Mail.app which caches mail by default, does this with IMAP accounts as well. So if you're already a .Mac subscriber, if you were to switch to using the .Mac mail account that comes with it (an IMAP account), you would have identical mail folders (including Sent mail) on both your computers because what Mail.app does is simply "sync" both local PCs with the mail that's on the .Mac server. When you send a message from one PC, it will (eventually) show up in the Sent mail folder of your other computer too. The whole system is really well implemented and hassle-free. I've used it on both my Macs for a couple of years and it's very reliable and convenient (like you, I insist that both my computers have complete copies of my e-mail). And because it caches all your mail locally, you can use your mail even when you're not connected to the network.

Nice explanation! However, just so you know, this is all standard fare with any IMAP account - none of this is unique to .Mac. Don't know if I was misreading you, but I somehow got the impression you were trying to suggest this. Excuse me if I'm off base here

[ooninay]

Thanks for pointing that out... something I should have made more clear, especially since I myself use an IMAP provider other than .Mac!