Synchronising laptop, phone, and desktop for multiple mail accounts

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Perhaps someone can advise me on how best to manage a transition to synchronised accounts:

Current Scenario:
– 5 e-mail addresses that I monitor (3 MAPI enabled, 2 IMAP enabled , 1 POP only)
– currently all mail accounts are downloaded via POP, into one Outlook PST file – single inbox
– Folder structure created in Outlook to cater for:
– Each mail account
– Project folders (and subfolders) that relate to each project
– Currently PST is around 12GB – which makes backup a nightmare!

How could I structure a new mail management protocol to:
– permit Laptop / Phone and desktop to synchronise the mail in and out automatically
– make backups easier by leaving the mail predominantly on the mail server
– single inbox, drafts and sent items – to facilitate keeping a tab on incoming and outgoing mail.
– single contacts list for all mailboxes
– single calendar for all mailboxes

I have tried to:
– export all project folders to separate PST files. This works well and reduces the size of the single PST, but requires connecting to them in Outlook when I need to access them.
– change from POP to MAPI for 3 mail accounts. This has the effect of generating 3 full sets of Inbox/Sent Items/Draft/ etc which makes it difficult to control and view where mails are being delivered.
– link my phone to accounts using IMAP. This is to ensure that there is at least a record of the mails that I send from the phone. An alternative possibility is to connect with Microsoft ActiveSync to keep the info up to date on my phone (BB Z10 – new).
++++ This is not too satisfactory, since I now will end up with multiple PST files on my machine, located all over the place – tricky to backup. There is no way I can sync my old e-mail structure UP to the mail server – there will therefore still be a legacy PST.

Suggestions please?????????
I would really appreciate your suggestions, because I have exhausted every ounce of my imagination trying to find a solution!

Thanks
Alain Jacquet

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You may have thought of this, but if you set up all accounts as imap, all email will be synchronized over all devices. As long as you don’t have too much mail in your mailbox(es), there shouldn’t be a problem.

As far as the 12GB PST file, why not archive the old email into its own PST file, reducing the size of your main PST file? You don’t have to keep backing up the old email.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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MAPI may be the best way to sync all devices. The multiple inbox situation can be solved easily with rules that move all incoming posts to the same inbox, in Outlook.
I do that with my current setup. I have a few IMAP accounts and I have a simple rule in all of them to do as described.

P.S.:You posted this in the Non Outlook email forum, but you are using Outlook? Please confirm that you are and I will move this into the correct forum.

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Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes – I am using Outlook on my laptop and desktop, but it is also related to syncing my phone, (hence the non-outlook folder) which has started the whole mail delivery issue for me.

I got the Blackberry Z10 last week, and I found that their desktop software can not sync with Outlook…. (BIG WOW!) This is an essential item for me, since I need my calendar and contacts list to be up to date on both phone and laptop (and more if I decide to get a tablet). I have then got into looking for ways to solve this problem.

I will try to post some pics of the folder structures….. that might shed some light on the problem.

I would really like to know how you work with the rules in Outlook for multiple mailboxes. That would be really helpful to me please?

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Have you ever created rules? I can provide a step by step explanation, if you need to.
You will need a rule for each account from which you want messages moved. The rule is relatively simple to create with the wizard. It will be a rule with 1 condition – through the specified account (and the you choose the account) and 1 action – move it to the specified folder. That’s all there is to it but, as I said, I can try and provide an image based guide.

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Hi ruirib…

Thanks for the clarification – yes – I have created rules in the past to move messages. What is the effect on a MAPI account, though?
I assume that as soon as the rule comes into effect, and moves the mail from the MAPI account to a local folder, the mail is also deleted from the server. That means it is no longer available to other devices.

I just wish Blackberry would go back to their old version of Blackberry Desktop, which did used to sync outlook contacts and calendar to the phone!

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Yeah, you are right about the move and deletion. You can have a rule move a copy of the message, so the original message would still be there, albeit you would have two messages then, one in the original inbox, another in the “global” inbox.

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I guess I need to avoid the multiple personalities, then…………….

If I use one mailbox to suck up the messages from the other accounts, then all messages will come through one mail account. The problem is then how do I send them out? I guess all outgoing messages would then come from the same single account (which is not what I want!)

Any way of sorting out the e-mail from address when sending out through the same mailbox? (Just thinking aloud………)

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Ought to be a way to keep a single mail store in the cloud somewhere, but synchronizing multiple devices’ simultaneous actions on it would require some cloud-based gatekeeper and conflict resolution mechanism.

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OK – I am making progress, although its not a cheap solution!

I use Mailenable as mail server, since it runs on Windows and has a very easy interface.

I ended up having to upgrade to the Enterprise Premium version (most expensive!) to get MAPI compatibility across a couple of domains. There is an Outlook MAPI connector that results in any changes made to the mailbox being replicated immediately in the corresponding Outlook folder. This syncs mail, calendar and contacts with the mail server.

Next I have implemented ActiveSync licences on Mailenable, too. This means that I can now sync mail, calendar, contacts etc with a mobile device (Z10 works great!).

Quite an exercise installing SSL certificates and configuring the licences within Mailenable, but it’s done.

Now, for the old PST file of 13Gb……:
– simply use it as a store for older mail.
– archive folders that are relevant to the different mail accounts I have (some are IMAP and some are MAPI enabled).
– keep separate PST folders for each project (that keeps them down in size), and only connect to these files when I need to sort / file any mail.

I need some tips on how Autoarchive works… I might be able to get Outlook to do the filing of mails for me – if I can archive different folders to different PST files. Hmmmmm…
Any tips?

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You can archive different folders to different PST files. You can even define different settings for each of your current folders, and those settings include everything from time period of messages to archive, to destination file for the archived messages. In Outlook, choose a folder in the navigation pane, then choose the Folder tab, then click Autoarchive Settings and you will be able to define the settings for the folder. Do this for all the folders where you want the settings to be customized. Overall default settings are defined in File->Options->Advanced.

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Thanks very much for that…..
I will have a good look over it this evening, and see what the options are.
(Its getting kind of complicated – and if I have a HDD crash………….. I hope I can get it all set up where I was!)

Thanks for the help and guidance!

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You’re welcome :). Do let us know how it goes.

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OK
Now that I have managed to get things working (well almost all things working) between Outlook and my phone there is a very interesting article that was published here by Woody Leonhard:
https://windowssecrets.com/top-story/going-google-apps-part-1-move-your-mail/

The Blackberry Z10 does have a Google app built into it, so this would have been the perfect / ideal solution! And a WHOLE lot cheaper than the US$160 plus….. to set up the Mailenable Enterprise + Activesync solution! I have not tried Woody’s solution but it appears to do exactly what I was looking to do – and it would probably have worked more effectively to have one mailbox that deals with all the different e-mail addresses, and responds with the same (correct) address each time!

Two things that Woody does not address are:
1. You would still need to keep your current mailbox (pop3 or IMAP) at your current ISP for this to work – a cost, but relatively cheap.
2. Combining multiple e-mail addresses into the one GMail account…. how it would work to separate / keep the respective mailboxes separate.

Anyone have any comments?

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OK – the problem is cropping up again!
I am starting to think that I need to upload the folders to my mail server, so I have access to those PST’s in their entirety from anywhere (ie: webmail).

First step would be to archive those REALLY old mails and folders. Leave them as standalone PST files that are part of the backup. Don’t amend them at all.

Then copy the mails and folders in Outlook to the online folders, and let Outlook upload those to the mail server. This will mean that those folders are now stored on the server, and fully accessible from any device anywhere. This could take a very long time……… since the pst is around 12Gb in size!

Then its a situation of which folders are uploaded to which accounts? I have personal, business and 2 other mail addresses……

Probably a bit too tricky – and time consuming (and bandwidth consuming). It would probably be better to use the good old delete button to sort it all out!

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Do you really need old mail there? Looks a lot of trouble, just to access old accounts.

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