MS Outlook - same accounts, two PC's - is this possible?

LucianH

I have my main desktop PC set up with ms outlook with a few email accounts (some being with talktalk (my isp) and others being gmail). I've started working away from home for a couple of days a week and would like to know what will happen if I set-up outlook on a laptop with the same email accounts.

Basic question is: if I receive emails when on my laptop will they only appear in the laptops inbox or, when I go back onto my desktop, will they also appear in the desktop's inbox - ie, will the emails only "download" once from the server?

TrickyDicky101

I have my main email account on 3 computers with Outlook (plus on my iPad) and they all get the new emails. The only (minor) issue I get is that one of the computers I rarely use so if I ever fire up Outlook on that it takes a long time to update the inbox.

grumpycrab

Ahh, the mess that is accessing email from multiple locations. First thing you should know is the difference between the 2 main email protocols:-
POP (the old and original one and probably the one you use). When the email is accessed it (is usually) downloaded to your computer; so if you access email on 2 computers the first one will have the email and the second will not (see **)
IMAP (the new, improved, email). Assuming all your computers have IMAP then ALL the mail is stored centrally (at ISP); all computers see the email that is centrally stored; if an email is deleted from one computer that is what the second computer will see.

In other words, POP downloads email to your computer, IMAP keeps email at the server.

** with POP you can set an options to "keep email at server for X days" and so becomes a pseudo-IMAP protocol

SO to answer your question... assuming you use POP, emails will download once UNLESS you have "keep emails at server for X days" ticked.

Fifer

grumpycrab wrote: »

Ahh, the mess that is accessing email from multiple locations. First thing you should know is the difference between the 2 main email protocols:-
POP (the old and original one and probably the one you use). When the email is accessed it (is usually) downloaded to your computer; so if you access email on 2 computers the first one will have the email and the second will not (see **)
IMAP (the new, improved, email). Assuming all your computers have IMAP then ALL the mail is stored centrally (at ISP); all computers see the email that is centrally stored; if an email is deleted from one computer that is what the second computer will see.

In other words, POP downloads email to your computer, IMAP keeps email at the server.

** with POP you can set an options to "keep email at server for X days" and so becomes a pseudo-IMAP protocol

SO to answer your question... assuming you use POP, emails will download once UNLESS you have "keep emails at server for X days" ticked.

Is it not the case with most ISPs however, that there will be a storage limit for email which you may eventually breach with IMAP and be forced to download or lose emails from the server (which may not be an issue for most people).

I didn't know about the 'keep emails at server for x days' POP option though. That sounds like a good solution for me - thanks.

grumpycrab

Fifer wrote: »

Is it not the case with most ISPs however, that there will be a storage limit for email which you may eventually breach

Yes, there's a storage limit (e.g. 10GB with Gmail) and so you should do regular house work.

LucianH

Many thanks! :beer:

Now I know I can get it to work, I'll check the settings on my desktop then set up my laptop.

LucianH

Have just been playing with my Outlook Accounts. They were all set to POP so I delete one and set it up again as IMAP to test it out.

The unforeseen impact of this was that a new top level folder is created in Outlook for this IMAP account whereas I want all emails to go to the same inbox folder. I noticed that for the POP accounts you have the option to change the folder which is not there for the IMAP account. I can imagine why this is the case (since the folder effectively synchronises with the server) but it's not doing what I need.

Unless anybody can guide me on how to set up a number of different IMAP accounts to deliver emails to the same inbox, I'll have to stick with POP but use the setting for keeping on the server for a certain number of days - but, will this work OK (ie, accessing the emails from two different PCs) even if I set up all the POP accounts to deliver to the same Outlook folder on each PC?

booler

LucianH wrote: »

I'll have to stick with POP but use the setting for keeping on the server for a certain number of days - but, will this work OK (ie, accessing the emails from two different PCs) even if I set up all the POP accounts to deliver to the same Outlook folder on each PC?

Yes, this will work but what will happen is that if you download to your laptop and subsequently process the emails and delete them then they will download again next time you log on with your laptop.

booler

I am in a similar situation to yourself. I normally use a PC in my office and I take my laptop when I go away for more than a day. In this case I just transfer the Outlook PST file from one to the other using a memory stick. This more or less syncs them.

There are more clever ways of doing this such as putting your PST file on the Cloud or Dropbox or something but the system I am using works for me and I can't be bothered changing.

tuggy12

Why not just use web mail instead of outlook.

All your emails will then be held at the server and can be accessed from any pc.

e.g. the talktalk web mail log in is here

booler

Webmail is another solution but it can be very slow at time and most Outlook users like the organisation that it offers.