Synching Outlook files

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I’ve started using Windows Mesh with my three Win 7 pcs. This does a fairly good job of syncing most folders, although I don’t like it introducing older copies of files from some pcs, and I am not sure that removing a file from one pc will be replicated with removal on others.

In any case, Mesh does not sync Outlook files on the three pcs. Is there a way to sync Outlook .pst files? [With Win 7 and Outllok 2003, I simply made all updates in my main desktop and then copied the .pst file to the other two pcs. Worked fine. However, I’m looking to sync files no matter which pc I’m using for updating.]

Thanks.

p.s. Also, my iPad synced beautifully (including music, contacts, and calendars) when I just connected it to my former Win XP pc running Outlook 2003. It is not doing this with my Win 7 pc running Outlook 2010. I have not researched this yet, but if you have any advice on this, too, please forward it.

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Can’t help with all the issues, but if you remove one file from a synced folder, it will be removed from all the synced computers.

I don’t know of any free tools to sync outlook files. There seem to be some paid apps available, though.

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This applies to Inbox and I think to Sent Items (that was a late thought that I’m not sure of myself) only, and it depends on how often you use your three computers. Furthermore, there may be security concerns.

Now that I’ve just about disqualified the proposal in its entirety, I should point out that you probably have the option to leave mail on the ISP’s server for a given length of time, and if you leave it there long enough for all three computers to check the mail, all three will pick it up independently of the others for you. The default setting in Outlook 2010 is 14 days to leave it on the server, but you can change the length of time it is there to suit yourself. The security issue is that you may not want to leave it there at all.

Rationalizing contacts and keeping them up to date is a chore I all but despair of, but so long as you maintain one as a master and make changes to that and only that, then syncing it with others can be accomplished by exporting the master to a file, and importing it into the corresponding file on the other computers. The same is true for all of the other syncing operations. The problem, of course, is that if you are on the road and acquire new data with a laptop and your master is a desktop, matters become more complicated. One suggestion for dealing with that is to save the data to a separate file (OneNote, for example), and fill it in when you are back at the master.

There is nothing elegant about solutions like those I’m afraid, but it is one (dreary) way of doing it.

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Thanks for the two inputs.

I solved the Outlook iPad issue. Like so often, simple if one finds the correct screen.

I have not solved the Outlook syncing issues, but — as is pointed out above — there are commercial packages which claim to solve this one. I’ll have to look into them.

I have a new Mesh issue. Apparently one of my pcs (and maybe two) shut down inappropriately with the confusion during Irene last night. When I try to sync it with my desktop, I receive a message about the inappropriate closing (didn’t react fast enough to get the precise wording). When I start Mesh, it does not recognize the earlier saved files, and it won’t allow me to re-add them to my sync file list. [It tells me that the folders are already in another list or a part of a folder in another list.] Do I need to uninstall Mesh and start over, or …?

Thanks again.

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I never experienced that, but I would just get the folder or folders in question and stop syncing them in all of the devices, and then would add them to be synced again. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.

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4 months ago I thought Outlook in its various manifestations was the only way to keep contacts and email and a smart phone and my wife’s ipad happy. We tried dropbox…that was hopeless but then my brother in law suggested gmail. Problem solved.

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It did work — thanjks!

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I could be missing something here, but I do this using Microsoft’s new cloud Exchange server. Six bucks a month and it’s like having your own private Exchange server. Mail, contacts and calendar are perfectly and automatically sync’d across all devices (for me it’s two computers and an iPhone) and are also available via browser if you don’t have devices with you, without any manual steps whatsoever, even if those devices are on different operating systems and using different versions of Outlook. So far haven’t had a single hiccup.

Did I misunderstand your question?

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I do this using Microsoft’s new cloud Exchange server.

Can you migrate existing email addresses to this service?

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Can you migrate existing email addresses to this service?

I’m using the Office365 solution with three existing POP3 services (along with a new address @mydomainname.onmicrosoft.com). I’m using this for two of us each with multiple email addresses (home and office, etc.) for $6/month each. I’ve found it reliable enough and it solves all of the things I used to do to copy my .pst’s around. With, of course, complete Outlook folder synchronization. My significant other has a lot of Outlook Notes subfolders. Not many things except Exchange really sync those across devices.

But what’s better is that I can access this Outlook message store if I can get online. Recently while on vacation, I was left without the shared netbook we brought. My daughter connected with her iPhone to the online exchange site (OWA) and I was able to quite quickly search for and find the key email message with the restaurant name in it. I have two computers with Outlook 2010 running very successfully and am about to add the third. This solution does require at least Outlook 2007. 2010 is better (even for an old holdout that finally mioved from Office 2003 this year).

Migration from .pst was to create the new .ost (local Exchange store) and then hand copy folder by folder to it. I really do have everything running how I wish it it could. Amazing for the price.

I have lots of Live Mesh stories. Not many very good ones. I started with FolderShare and I think it worked better. That’s a whole ‘nother story…

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I never considered the cloud for this application — will have to look into it. If it is as flexible as it sounds here, does it also sync an Android cellphone? Can you say, “Use the data from source x as the inital model for syncing?”

BTW: I uninstalled and reinstalled Windows Mesh to solve the Irene-related issue.

globalist

I could be missing something here, but I do this using Microsoft’s new cloud Exchange server. Six bucks a month and it’s like having your own private Exchange server. Mail, contacts and calendar are perfectly and automatically sync’d across all devices (for me it’s two computers and an iPhone) and are also available via browser if you don’t have devices with you, without any manual steps whatsoever, even if those devices are on different operating systems and using different versions of Outlook. So far haven’t had a single hiccup.

Did I misunderstand your question?

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I’ve been wondering if the new Cloud Exchange server is the way for me to go. I currently use Outlook 2007 on my main PC to download mail via POP3 from my ISP. I can access that same mail via my iPhone and iPad so get pending mail whilst away from my desk, downloading it to Outlook on my return. I have quite an extensive set of folders within Outlook to file things away. Additionally, I have archiving set and create a new archive file each year – this started as a way to keep pst file sizes down as Outlook could to be unstable if the file grew too big. I now have a series of archive pst files, along with my current one, all opened in Outlook, giving me a full mail history back to 1997 (and they work seamlessly with Outlook’s search facility.

I make copies of the archive files and have them safely tucked away. They’re also held on my laptop and I (weekly) copy my current archive and live pst files to it; I rarely use Outlook on the laptop to access new mail – rather it’s my portable archive.

Anyway, I’m wondering if the new cloud service would work for me. What I need to be able to do is:
1) Use my current email address.
2) Load my pst files onto it (live and archives) – to ensure I keep the history. Total file size is only around 4GB so well within the account allowance.
3) I can easily download and store selected mail locally (i.e. copy to a local pst).
4) Access it, of course, with a variety of computers, including my iPad.

Anyone started to use it yet?

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I would like to know what others suggest to the above post – I am nearly an identical situation.

Thanks.

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If you’re not running your own email server or relying on a hosted email solution for an email domain you own, I don’t really see how a cloud exchange solution can be of help.

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I’ve started using Windows Mesh with my three Win 7 pcs. This does a fairly good job of syncing most folders, although I don’t like it introducing older copies of files from some pcs, and I am not sure that removing a file from one pc will be replicated with removal on others.

In any case, Mesh does not sync Outlook files on the three pcs. Is there a way to sync Outlook .pst files? [With Win 7 and Outllok 2003, I simply made all updates in my main desktop and then copied the .pst file to the other two pcs. Worked fine. However, I’m looking to sync files no matter which pc I’m using for updating.]

Thanks.

p.s. Also, my iPad synced beautifully (including music, contacts, and calendars) when I just connected it to my former Win XP pc running Outlook 2003. It is not doing this with my Win 7 pc running Outlook 2010. I have not researched this yet, but if you have any advice on this, too, please forward it.

I’ve been using a program called SyncPST for years. It does not copy or sync the entire PST file – it does one-direction or both-direction syncs of the internal differences within the files (new contacts, emails, appointments, deletions, tasks, etc.) It is very fast. I’m just a user who got tired of trying to keep my PST files on a laptop and desktop the same without overwriting new data entered or received on both. SyncPST is not free. I also sync my hard drive folders with external hard drives using SyncToy, and create backup images of every partition. That way I preserve my archived Outlook files as well. I run SyncPST first, of course before backing up my laptop or desktop data folders.

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First, let me update my original post.

Mesh has worked very well, keeping non-Outlook files up to date on my three Win 7 pcs. It to me is uncanny the way it even follows file or folder renaming and deletions.

The syncing with iPad also works beautifully, once I found the right set-up screens.

Your message reminded me of some of past practices, e.g., SyncToy. I will look into SyncPST — it sounds useful.

[But before I try this, I must find out why my two new hp pcs have shown me more blue screens in a few months than I had on three Win XP pcs over the past almost-decade. I am suspicious that it is caused by the Symantec system that came with the pcs. I purged Symantec from my Win XP pcs about 7 years ago because it introduced so many problems, rather than simply protecting me. At least some of the current error messages can be traced to Symantec drivers.]

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What did you end up using to sync Outlook?

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I have two Outlook e-mail accounts. I recently recieved a message from Microsoft advising that in near future I shall have to log in to each seprately. Is this a vaid message or a fake bit of spam?
pately

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I have two Outlook e-mail accounts. I recently recieved a message from Microsoft advising that in near future I shall have to log in to each seprately. Is this a vaid message or a fake bit of spam?
pately

Valid: An update to linked accounts

(But that has nothing to do with the Outlook email client program which the rest of this thread was about.)

Bruce

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When I have stable systems, I’ll return to a more automatic syncing approach. In the meantime, I use my former method:
– Do all my Outlook work on my main pc.
– Use my service provider’s web-based mail when I travel.
– Copy the .pst file to my laptop when I leave for a trip.
Crude, but it works.
And there must be a way to get stable Win 7 desktops. [And perhaps it is Symantec biting again.]

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This is a partly thread new – but on the topic of syncing Outlook 2007 / win 7. Basically I have been doing the same as globalist says in their 2011-09-27 22:25 post. However this was under XP and under win 7 it is not working. Specifically I
1 Opened Outlook on each pc with “Work Off Line” selected, and went to “Tools/Account Settings/Data files Tab and determined the “Personal folders” path as being:”C:UsersAppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook” This is the same on both systems.
2. Shut down Outlook on both systems.
3. Deleted the contents of this folder on the laptop, and copied the entire contents from the desktop into it. Visual comparison say’s the copy worked OK.
4. Open Outlook on both systems, Offline still selected. Desktop has current mail as expected. Laptop is two months out of date!

What am I missing here?

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I tried that, too, with frustrating results.

What I found was that Outlook on all three of my Win 7 pcs had moved the active folder for the .pst files to the Documents directory (or My Documents, depending upon how you approach it). There was a folder just like the Word, Excel, etc folders that was named Outlook Files and my active .pst file was there, not in the folder you mentioned which is, I think, the default folder in Win XP.

globalist

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Sync stuff: this post is for general interest and may not apply to Outlook.

If you type ‘sync’ in the search box at Start, you will find that Windows 7 has a Sync Center and significant capabilities that are now part of the system, and you can forget about the ancient and unsupported SyncToy.

If you would like a free file manager that works with XP through 7 and is capable of synching and much more, I suggest you try FreeCommander.

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Two other programs to sync Outlook pst files I found are:

CodeTwo Outlook Sync:

Code:

http://www.codetwo.com/outlook-sync/

and

Easy2Sync for Outlook:

Code:

http://www.easy2sync.com/en/produkte/e2s4o.php

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Another is Add2Outlook:

Sync calendar with PST, Exchange Online

It’s an outlook add-in that can sync PSTs, hosted exchange online services, even multiple exchange servers.

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Thanks for the suggestions re 3rd part sync’ers. On win 7 sync though, I typed sync as dogberry suggested, got sync center, but when I selected “set up new sync partnerships” and got told that no sync partnerships can be set up!

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OK, so the story so far.
1. Outlook (and everything else to my knowledge) on my desktop is working fine (win 7 and Office 2007).
2. Outlook on the desktop records it’s folder of choice as “C:UsersemadAppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook”, which contains the expected files.
3. A search through my desktop c: drive – with the indexer enabled everywhere – finds .pst files only in the above folder. Also specifically checked both machines for the folders globalist mentions – no sign of them. Possibly a 2010 rather than 2007 Office trick??
4. The laptop has had a clean (re)install of Win 7, MSE, and Office 2007 only.
5. A first run of Outlook on the laptop said it could not find the Outlook.pst file, and exited.
6. I subsequently did an Explorer copy of the above desktop folder to the laptop folder, with both Outlooks not running, and ran Outlook on the laptop. It runs fine, and shows valid mails, calendar etc, but only up to July this year – nothing shows up since, though the desktop Outlook is up to date. Note that this is the same behaviour as before the clean reinstall on the laptop. Checked Outlook’s folder of choice on th laptop – same as the above.
7. Shut down both Outlooks, and used Goodsync to overwrite the laptop folder from the desktop. After the overwrite both visual and an analyse only GS run agree the two folders are the same.
8. Run Outlook on the laptop – still only up to July.
9. Install and run easy2sync for Outlook – exits with a “cannot synchronise” error.
10. Did not try codetwo as the free version does not sync mail, or freecommander as I suspect it is only going to to do the same as an Explorer or GoodSync copy

what the heck is going on?

Baffled Peter

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Sorry — my experience must reflects Office 2010 vs 2007. The default file locations are clearly different.

While I have different problems, it seems like we are doomed to spend much more time getting our systems working than using them!

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OK, so the story so far.
1. Outlook (and everything else to my knowledge) on my desktop is working fine (win 7 and Office 2007).
2. Outlook on the desktop records it’s folder of choice as “C:UsersemadAppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook”, which contains the expected files.
3. A search through my desktop c: drive – with the indexer enabled everywhere – finds .pst files only in the above folder. Also specifically checked both machines for the folders globalist mentions – no sign of them. Possibly a 2010 rather than 2007 Office trick??
4. The laptop has had a clean (re)install of Win 7, MSE, and Office 2007 only.
5. A first run of Outlook on the laptop said it could not find the Outlook.pst file, and exited.
6. I subsequently did an Explorer copy of the above desktop folder to the laptop folder, with both Outlooks not running, and ran Outlook on the laptop. It runs fine, and shows valid mails, calendar etc, but only up to July this year – nothing shows up since, though the desktop Outlook is up to date. Note that this is the same behaviour as before the clean reinstall on the laptop. Checked Outlook’s folder of choice on th laptop – same as the above.
7. Shut down both Outlooks, and used Goodsync to overwrite the laptop folder from the desktop. After the overwrite both visual and an analyse only GS run agree the two folders are the same.
8. Run Outlook on the laptop – still only up to July.
9. Install and run easy2sync for Outlook – exits with a “cannot synchronise” error.
10. Did not try codetwo as the free version does not sync mail, or freecommander as I suspect it is only going to to do the same as an Explorer or GoodSync copy

what the heck is going on?

Baffled Peter

Did you check what file the laptop is using? By right click Personal Folders, you can check that in Data File Properties (doing this from 2010, so not exactly sure if it is the same in 2007).

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ruirib,
I checked the properties of Personal Folders as you suggested – and this led me to a SOLUTION.
My desktop has both Outlook.pst and Outlook(1).pst files. I don’t know why but there it is. Both were copied to the laptop. However if I select the “Advanced” button on the “Personal folders” / “Properties” the desktop shows the (1) version but the laptop shows the plain version. I could not find a way of changing these file selections, so I changed Outlook.pst on the laptop to Outlook(0).pst (would not delete) and Outlook(1).pst to Outlook.pst, and now things work as they should.

Thanks ruirb!

So now that I have a crude solution, can anyone explain this situation? Can I simplify things by deleting “Outlook.pst” on the desktop, and renaming “Outlook(1).pst to “Outlook.pst, and if so how do I get Outlook to recognise this as the required file?

Peter

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Peter,

I am glad you solved your problem. I thought something like that might be happening, so pointing you to see the actual file in use would set you on the right track. Seems it did :).

The easiest way to get the file with the name you want is close Outlook and then rename the file to the name you want. Once renamed, open Outlook. Outlook will complain that the file cannot be found and will present a dialog to let you select a new file. Just choose the renamed file and all will be ok.

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OK – and that worked too! However I also have two archive files, which seem to overlap considerably, but not totally. I started to copy the contents of one across into the other, but this resulted in a very large number of duplicates. Is there any way of merging these two archives, i.e. without duplication – or removing the duplication afterwards?

Peter

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I have successfully used OsaSync Pro for 4 years now (see http://www.vaita.com/osasync.asp). It seems to have more options on how the computers can be connected (via network, FTP or USB drive) than the other options mentioned (although I haven’t tried them out) but it does have the disadvantage of requiring a yearly subscription to maintain the upgrades. I don’t know what the upgrade policy is for the other programs.

It includes options for removing duplicates and has worked seemlessly for me with very big PST files (a gig or more with thousands of emails) and over a thousand contacts.

Ian

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I mentioned SyncPST in an earlier post. I went through all the ways of “synching” my PST file on different machines, and concluded that trying to keep the exact same content through file copying would always be mistake prone. Inevitably, I would have a few, DIFFERENT new emails, contacts and appointments downloaded on each machine making file copying useless. I even tried to drag and drop the new items across my network to each open Outlook file, or emailing each set to separate email addresses for downloading on the other machine seconds later, hoping nothing else new came in from other people. I was running between rooms LOL!

I then tried trial versions of two or three commercial programs and settled on SyncPST. I can send any or all the different items found in each PST file bidirectionally to the other. I can choose one way in either direction too, if I know the desktop or laptop has been dormant for a few days. It learns where my pst files are (and leaves them there) and automatically goes to each to preview the folder lists, and all proposed moves for individual selection or un-selecting. I can un-select my Deletions folder, for example. It is not perfect for everyone, and is subscription-based for new versions, but it does not expire annually and I do not upgrade to every new release. Tech support has always been same day from the same person in Germany via email. I suspect he wrote the program. The best part for me is that I no longer have to think about how best to keep each file the same through the previous copying process. I’m also toying with the idea of doing a few dozen one way syncs among all my archive.pst files created over the years, to generate one huge archive in one place.

I use good freeware whenever I can find it, and do not waste money on every speed up your pc or other utility that comes along. Sometimes, though, it does pay to take advantage of someone else’s creativity like those who wrote the small selection of Outlook synching apps that are available.

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Slipstick is a topnotch source of information and advice about Outlook. For those who don’t know what a slipstick is, it is slang for a slide rule, which suggests the site has been around for some time. Because the user base for Outlook is gigantic, so is the number of expert sources, which is the reason I am reluctant to offer any more to this thread than a useful link.

If you go to the linked page, you will find sync matters in one of the boxes on the left-hand side of the page.

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