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bbales · Oct 14, 2008, 09:09 AM

After having to rebuild my Entourage database last week, and with a new laptop in the offing, (plus a relatively new iPhone I just set up for e-mail -- love the iPhone, by the way), I think it's time for me to actually figure out how to/if I can keep e-mail synced between the two computers. I have a .mac account, but primarily use an ameritech account (which is AT&T, but if I want to check online, I go to yahoo.com). I am fairly certain the ameritech account is POP.

Will switching to using Mail as my main program be beneficial? I've been mulling importing all the Entourage mail and sort of starting over. I haven't looked at Mail as a workhorse for a while, and frankly, I don't really understand smart mailboxes, but I am relatively smart so certainly I can read up on the features and learn IF the program will do what I need it to do.

I'm very, very bad at weeding out old w-mails, which is my problem, certainly. I'm just wondering if what I want even exists.

My apologies -- I know this has been asked before... And thanks in advance for the help.

tooki · Oct 14, 2008, 09:24 AM

I've never heard of email sync (except on PDAs) for non-IMAP (and other server-based) email systems.

Don't assume your ameritech account doesn't support IMAP. Every single ISP I've ever seen tells you to set up as POP (because it empties out their hard drive space), but a lot of them in fact support IMAP if you just try.

turtle777 · Oct 14, 2008, 10:20 AM

With POP, no dice.

IMAP is your best bet.

As tooki said, check with your ISP. Actually, if no IMAP is provided, that's a good reason to switch your ISP.

-t

bbales · Oct 14, 2008, 10:35 AM

I'm obviously going to have to do some investigating. My problem (though I'm not sure it is) is that I would never want all the mail to STAY online; I want it eventually on my computer. And I'm wondering how all that works, if I send mail from one computer, but want that sent message to show up on the other one, as well.

mduell · Oct 14, 2008, 09:17 PM

If you don't want to switch mail accounts but do want IMAP, you could set up a Gmail account that grabs your messages via POP and then use IMAP to access the Gmail account. You'd continue to send messages through your ISP, so no one else would notice the change.

With IMAP the messages all stay on the server, but you can cache it all locally for fast/offline access.

64stang06 · Oct 14, 2008, 10:26 PM

This article tells how to avoid spam with the Gmail filter, but you may find it useful for what you're looking to do anyway.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1360...mail_spam.html

Gavin · Oct 17, 2008, 06:36 AM

If you are using the same software to read the mail on both machines (same version too) you could use rsync to synchronize the mail folders.

(understatement) It might be a little complicated to set up. (/understatement)

I'd recommend the Gmail solution myself.

philm · Oct 17, 2008, 07:57 AM

Another option is to consider only using your laptop! I did this to overcome problems of syncing files, e-mails etc and I have a docking station with all the cables at work which makes it easy to get up and running when I reach to the office. Perhaps not the answer you were looking for, but maybe now is the time to go laptop-only.

besson3c · Oct 17, 2008, 08:02 AM

Why do you want to download your mail to your computer anyway? I think that if I understood your goals it would be easier to recommend something...

JKT · Oct 17, 2008, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by bbales

I'm obviously going to have to do some investigating. My problem (though I'm not sure it is) is that I would never want all the mail to STAY online; I want it eventually on my computer.

One of the preferences in Mail (and undoubtedly in other clients) for IMAP accounts is to download the message or the message plus attachments for offline viewing - it still stays on the server as well, and the read/unread status etc is synched the next time you hook back up (or instantly if you are constantly online). In other words, this is a standard option for IMAP mails. The only difference here is that if you delete the message from one computer it will be deleted on all, even if you have downloaded it everywhere else (and this includes the nightmare scenario of your account being wiped off the server due to a mistake by your supplier). Therefore, if you need to ensure that you always have a copy of your e-mail, you will need a stringent back-up procedure.

CatOne · Oct 20, 2008, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

If you don't want to switch mail accounts but do want IMAP, you could set up a Gmail account that grabs your messages via POP and then use IMAP to access the Gmail account. You'd continue to send messages through your ISP, so no one else would notice the change.

With IMAP the messages all stay on the server, but you can cache it all locally for fast/offline access.

Google's IMAP implementation stinks. It's very slow, and it's not at all standard. You can't create your own folders on the server!

As to your comment about IMAP being on the server -- there is absolutely nothing stopping you from creating folders "On my Mac" and moving mail there. I've been using IMAP for 6 years with Mail.app, and I have about 50 MB of it on the server, and 5 GB of it on my desktop machine (and backed up). It's trivially easy, and works just like POP does in this way. With the benefit that deleting an IMAP account doesn't nuke all your inbox emails :-)

all2ofme · Oct 20, 2008, 04:12 PM

Hope that this isn't OT, but a question for CatOne - how does Mail deal with local backups when you want to maintain copies in both places?

I'm not after a true sync, but would like to back up my IMAP (using Google Apps - agree that it's a bit odd in its execution...) account locally in case Google goes haywire and makes a mess of things.

I want my mail stored with Google *and* locally, in other words. Is the best way to just multiple-select and "Copy To" an "On My Mac" version of each folder every now and again?

mduell · Oct 20, 2008, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by CatOne

As to your comment about IMAP being on the server -- there is absolutely nothing stopping you from creating folders "On my Mac" and moving mail there.

But the OP wanted the messages available from multiple machines, so should be on the server.

ph0ust · Oct 21, 2008, 11:46 AM

gmail and imap and mail.app all allow for offline viewing of mail and attachments. check you settings in mail.app. you don't have to worry about copying your inbox messages to folders on your mac..... unless you want to of course.

imap and mail.app, and gmail for that matter, will easily and simply solve the issues of synchronized mail across multiple machines as well as offline viewing.