syncing email using Outlook Connector

[Tottencourt]

I am trying to use Outlook Connector with Outlook 2010 to sync email with my HTC Windows phone. I have an sbcglobal.net email account. My goal is to be able to send and receive email only through that email account and to sync not only the inbox with my phone, but also sent items and all my other email folders. If I don't sync email through my Windows Live account, the other email folders and messages sent from my phone don't sync. If I do go through my Windows Live account, I get duplicate messages. Can someone please give me a straightforward tutorial on how to set this up correctly? Ideally, I'd like to know how to set up Outlook connector on my computer, Outlook.com, and my email accounts on the phone so I can make it all work properly.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I have instructions here - Sync calendar and contacts using Outlook.com - Slipstick Systems - for calendar and contacts only.

Do you have both accounts set up on the phone? You should only have one on the phone - the live account.

Does the sbcglobal acct support imap? That would be better - use imap for the email and live for calendar/contact sync.

 

[Tottencourt]

I have instructions here - Sync calendar and contacts using Outlook.com - Slipstick Systems - for calendar and contacts only.




Do you have both accounts set up on the phone? You should only have one on the phone - the live account.




Does the sbcglobal acct support imap? That would be better - use imap for the email and live for calendar/contact sync.

Thanks for your quick reply. I am using imap for the email, and my contacts and calendar are perfectly synced through live. The trouble is that if I don't use live for email, messages I send from my phone don't sync with Outlook and vice versa. Neither of my other email folders sync to my phone either, because they're only established and filed in Outlook, not my sbcglobal account and Outlook Connector can't sync through my sbcglobal account, only the live account, right?


How can I change that?

 

[Tottencourt]

Also, if I only have the live account on my phone, then all my messages will be sent via that email address, and people will reply back to that address


> I'd like to send only from the sbcglobal email address.

 

[Tottencourt]

Update: I just discovered that I had sbcglobal set up through imap on my phone, but not in Outlook on my computer. Just fixed that. Now I have sbcglobal IMAP in Outlook. I sent a message from my phone, and it synced to the Sent Items folder in Outlook. So how do I clean everything up?

I assume I should make the IMAP account the default email account in Outlook. How do I set up all my other email folders in that account? Do I have to do it manually, or can I somehow copy them over from the live account? And if I do that, will they automatically be mirrored on Yahoo's server?

On my phone, do I now use only the sbcglobal email account and delete the hotmail account?

There are two folders in the IMAP account both on my phone and computer - one called "Sent," and one called "sent items." What's the difference? Can I get rid of one of them? The message I sent from my phone synced to the latter folder, but now I have two copies of each message I send on my phone.

My Outlook.com account is also set up to check my sbcglobal email. Should I just shut that down?

Sorry for all the questions. I've just made such a mess, and I don't know how to clean it up.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You can make the imap account default email account, but you need a pst for calendar and contacts.

You can delete the live account from the phone but you may need it if you want to sync calendar and contacts.

I would definitely disconnect the sbc account from live mail. If the mail there is all duplicated, i'd delete it.

You may not be able to do anything about the sent folders - outlook will let you select the sent folder to use and you should use the same folder as the phone. The server may not let you delete one folder though. I'm not sure why you'd have two copies of each sent mail on the phone. Some phones can be configured to CC yourself so you have a copy - but the second one would not be in the sent folder.

You can copy the folders and mail to the imap account. Is that on the yahoo servers? If so I think they can be at the same level as the Inbox (some servers only let you put folders under the inbox).

 

[Tottencourt]

You can make the imap account default email account, but you need a pst for calendar and contacts.

You can delete the live account from the phone but you may need it if you want to sync calendar and contacts.

I would definitely disconnect the sbc account from live mail. If the mail there is all duplicated, i'd delete it.

You may not be able to do anything about the sent folders - outlook will let you select the sent folder to use and you should use the same folder as the phone. The server may not let you delete one folder though. I'm not sure why you'd have two copies of each sent mail on the phone. Some phones can be configured to CC yourself so you have a copy - but the second one would not be in the sent folder.

You can copy the folders and mail to the imap account. Is that on the yahoo servers? If so I think they can be at the same level as the Inbox (some servers only let you put folders under the inbox).

Thanks. Here's an update on my progress:

I left the live account on the phone, but just unchecked the option to sync email.

I disconnected the sbc account from Outlook.com.

I can't get rid of the extra sent folder, or the extra Trash folder, so I guess they have to stay, but I'm no longer getting duplicate sent items.

I copied the email folders and mail to the imap account in Outlook, but they didn't sync to the yahoo servers. I also tried moving a few folders into the inbox, but they still don't sync from Outlook to Yahoo. There's a folder called "Synced messages" on my phone and in Outlook under the sbcglobal IMAP account. If I put an entire email folder in it, the messages don't sync, but if I move a single orphan message (no folder) into that Synced messages folder, it syncs with my phone. That's not going to work for me. Any ideas on how to get my email folders in Outlook to sync to the Yahoo servers?

Also, how can I get rid of the live account in the Mail sidebar in Outlook without removing the live account altogether?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

On the sync - try making the folders in the account at yahoo.com - copying messages into it in bulk should sync. Also, outlook can be slow to sync, especially a large number of messages. But if the folders were not created online, then I don't think its going to sync.

Did you move all folders at once? One folder at a time might work better.

Unfortunately you can't get rid of the live account but you should be able to rename it so its at the end of list, well, not ifi ts the default. That is always on top. See Rename email accounts and data files in the folder list - Slipstick Systems for the instructions to rename.

 

[Tottencourt]

OK. I know how to create the folders on Yahoo, but I'm not clear on how to "copy messages into it in bulk.". How can I copy messages stored in Outlook on my computer into the Yahoo servers online?

 

[Tottencourt]

I also just found out that I although I have two folders for drafts in the sbcglobal account in Outlook, one named "Draft" and the other, "Drafts," when I save a draft of an email message, it is saved in the "drafts" folder under the live account! Why? How do I change the default folder for drafts?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

In outlook, open a folder, select all (Ctrl+A), then drag or use the move to folder command to move them to the yahoo folder.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

IMAP drafts are saved in the Drafts folder of the default data file. That is not configurable. Sorry.

 

[Tottencourt]

Oh - I misunderstood. I already moved them to the yahoo (sbcglobal) folder in Outlook, both inside and outside my yahoo inbox, but they're not syncing to the yahoo servers. I thought you were suggesting copying them to those servers some other way - not through Outlook. What could the trouble be?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Give it maybe 24 hours - outlook can be slow.

Did you move or copy the messages? If move, do you have a backup copy of the source pst? If the messages don't upload, you risk losing the local copies.

 

[Tottencourt]

I copied them, so I should be safe. There's a second copy of everything under the live account, which should also be on Outlook.com, and I run nightly backups of my hard drive, which should include the pst file for the live account. I'll wait 24 hours and let you know what happens. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Tottencourt]

You were right! All my email folders show up on my phone now. Thanks so much.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Cool. Thanks for the update.