For the IT bods out there as I’m a geologist and therefore more rock than computer literate.

Currently have Microsoft Outlook 2010 on two machines, my permanent desktop in the office and on a laptop I use in the field. I am regularly out of the office for several weeks and get emails on the laptop which as they only remain on the sever for 7 days are then not downloaded on to my Office PC. A similar issue occurs in reverse when I am in the office for a couple of weeks and I forget to turn the laptop on…

I really need to be able to sync the emails across both machines so I effectively have a full set / record of all the emails in both places.

Ideally I need to be able to clone the file structure from the desktop to the laptop and sync the emails across both machines.

I have tried a freebie from 4team but it doesn’t really do what I need.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Sounds like your mail server is using POP3 not IMAP. You’ll have to have a chat to IT to see if it’s possible to address your mail box with IMAP, then your inbox and folders will appear the same on both devices.

It really depends on the mail server they are running rather than what you can change at your end for a long term solution.

IMAP – as brassneck said. It will sync all your mail, sent items too.

You will prob have to pay a small fee per month for this – I use 1and1 for it, but most provide it.

We don’t have an IT department here (its all a bit DIY) email and hosting is administered by a small independent. I’ll drop him an email and see what the go is.

I was hoping for a simple 3rd party program to just sync them as I doubt I’ll have any joy in changing how the email is set up.

I also need to sync the existing historic emails on both machines.

As others have said, you need to be using IMAP rather than POP3 to talk to the mail server. You may well find that the server is happy to communicate under either protocol, and the change you need to make is at the PC end (when you set up an email account in Outlook you are given the option to use IMAP or POP3; I always use POP3 as I want to be able to delete emails on phones, tablets etc without those deletions then hitting my main laptop but my ISP’s server can also use IMAP).

Yeah I also have my email on my phone and regularly delete stuff on there which I would prefer to keep elsewhere.

yeah you need IMAP – or try the hosted Exchange route

You might be able to change it in the settings on either machine.
Go into accounts, settings and change the pop3 to imap.
theres also a tick box for the time they stay on the server – just untick it or choose “never”

Assuming I can go to IMAP and this solves the issue in future – is there a way to homogenize the existing scattered correspondence?

I can’t leave it on the server permanently as the inbox as a limited <1GB volume and I regularly get multiple 10mb+ emails in one fell swoop…

The basic issue is, whatever client workarounds you come up with, you’re pissing upstream because of your server-side restrictions.

You know what I’d do with that setup? I’d set an auto-forwarder to send everything to a Gmail account, then you’ve got everything everywhere always.