How To Sync Mail Between Desktop and Laptop

In article <fmcgirt-987C1B.08253030062004.DeleteThis@iruka.swcp.com>,
Frank McGirt <fmcgirt.DeleteThis@mac.com> wrote:

 > I have a PB G4 that I use on travel for up to several weeks at a time.
 > When I return home I want to resume using my PM G4 until I am ready to
 > travel again.
 >
 > Is there a simple way or application that will allow me to sync Mail
 > between the two before I go on travel and after I return. I have the
 > same Mail mailboxes on both computers.
 >
 > It has been suggested that I leave a copy of the mail on the server but
 > that can be a hassle. I simple want to make the mail on each computer
 > exactly the same by copying the appropriate messages to each computer.
 >
 > Thanks for any help of suggestions,
 >
 > Frank McGirt

I use Synchronize Pro X to do this as well as many other things. You may
want to check there products. <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.qdea.com" target="_blank">http://www.qdea.com</a>

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 >> Stay informed about: How To Sync Mail Between Desktop and Laptop 

In article <dom-29CC6D.10082730062004.DeleteThis@news.ispnews.com>,
domanova <dom.DeleteThis@invalid.invalid> wrote:

 > In article <fmcgirt-987C1B.08253030062004.DeleteThis@iruka.swcp.com>,
 > Frank McGirt <fmcgirt.DeleteThis@mac.com> wrote:
 >
  > > I have a PB G4 that I use on travel for up to several weeks at a time.
  > > When I return home I want to resume using my PM G4 until I am ready to
  > > travel again.
  > >
  > > Is there a simple way or application that will allow me to sync Mail
  > > between the two before I go on travel and after I return. I have the
  > > same Mail mailboxes on both computers.
  > >
  > > It has been suggested that I leave a copy of the mail on the server but
  > > that can be a hassle. I simple want to make the mail on each computer
  > > exactly the same by copying the appropriate messages to each computer.
  > >
  > > Thanks for any help of suggestions,
  > >
  > > Frank McGirt
 >
 > I use ChronoSync to accomplish this (along with other file
 > synchronization tasks).
 >
 > If you're good about running the sync regularly (i.e., every time you
 > switch between computers), then this will work fine. If you don't run
 > it regularly, then you're going to lose some messages since this sync
 > process synchronizes mbox _files_, not mail messages within mbox files.
 > One mbox file contains many mail messages, and if you run mail.app on
 > both computers after a sync, then the sync utility cannot be sure about
 > which file you want to keep.
 >
 > To avoid this problem I also have mail.app on the powerbook set to save
 > everything to the imap server. Once in a while I move all that stuff
 > from the server to the local disk on the desktop mac. ChronoSync is set
 > to sync the mail folder one-way: from the desktop to the powerbook.
 > This helps to avoid the problem of changed mbox files on both machines
 > after a sync has taken place.

Thanks for the responses. And you have exactly defined my problem -
the fact that Synchronize Pro and other sync apps that I have looked at
sync files while I really want to sync messages within the mbox files.
I guess I want something like Bookit for URLs which scans each bookmark
file for each specified browser and winds up with a single bookmark file
that can then used used by each browser. What I would like is to be
able to scan all messages in all mboxes and then write a set of mboxes
that contain a superset of all messages with no duplicates. That set
of mboxes could then be written back and forth between my laptop and
desktop.

Frank<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: How To Sync Mail Between Desktop and Laptop 

Frank McGirt <fmcgirt RemoveThis @mac.com> writes:
   > > > It has been suggested that I leave a copy of the mail on the
   > > > server but that can be a hassle. I simple want to make the mail
   > > > on each computer exactly the same by copying the appropriate
   > > > messages to each computer.

 > Thanks for the responses. And you have exactly defined my problem -
 > the fact that Synchronize Pro and other sync apps that I have looked
 > at sync files while I really want to sync messages within the mbox
 > files.

The real solution is to use an IMAP server and, really, to
leave the messages on the server - exactly what one _does_
when using IMAP. IMAP was built to solve _exactly_ your
problem.

I use several different e-mail programs on several different
computers all pointing at the same IMAP box quite safely.
(Thunderbird, Mail.app, emacs/gnus, across three different
computers, as well as my IMAP provider's excellent webmail
client, too).

I'm sorry if that's not the answer you are looking for,
but it is the cleanest solution - by a _huge_ margin -
for what you're trying to do.

See <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/imap/isps/#table>
for a list of IMAP providers.

I'm a very happy customer of <http://www.Fastmail.FM>


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 >> Stay informed about: How To Sync Mail Between Desktop and Laptop 

In article <yobhdsshiih.fsf.DeleteThis@panix3.panix.com>,
BreadWithSpam.DeleteThis@fractious.net wrote:

 > Frank McGirt <fmcgirt.DeleteThis@mac.com> writes:
   > > > > It has been suggested that I leave a copy of the mail on the
   > > > > server but that can be a hassle. I simple want to make the mail
   > > > > on each computer exactly the same by copying the appropriate
   > > > > messages to each computer.
 >
  > > Thanks for the responses. And you have exactly defined my problem -
  > > the fact that Synchronize Pro and other sync apps that I have looked
  > > at sync files while I really want to sync messages within the mbox
  > > files.
 >
 > The real solution is to use an IMAP server and, really, to
 > leave the messages on the server - exactly what one _does_
 > when using IMAP. IMAP was built to solve _exactly_ your
 > problem.
 >
 > I use several different e-mail programs on several different
 > computers all pointing at the same IMAP box quite safely.
 > (Thunderbird, Mail.app, emacs/gnus, across three different
 > computers, as well as my IMAP provider's excellent webmail
 > client, too).
 >
 > I'm sorry if that's not the answer you are looking for,
 > but it is the cleanest solution - by a _huge_ margin -
 > for what you're trying to do.
 >
 > See <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/imap/isps/#table>
 > for a list of IMAP providers.
 >
 > I'm a very happy customer of <http://www.Fastmail.FM>

Yes, I think that is a very nice solution. Unfortunately, I have four
email addresses that are currently active (mainly due to past history of
needing to do dialup ISP access when traveling). One of the accounts
(mac.com) has an IMAP server so it sounds like I need to setup mac.com
as an IMAP account and then either kill the other three addresses or
have them all point (forward?) to mac.com (once I get the IMAP account
setup). I wonder is there a clean way to do this???<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: How To Sync Mail Between Desktop and Laptop 

Frank McGirt <fmcgirt.RemoveThis@mac.com> writes:
 > In article <yobhdsshiih.fsf.RemoveThis@panix3.panix.com>,
 > BreadWithSpam.RemoveThis@fractious.net wrote:

  > > The real solution is to use an IMAP server and, really, to
  > > leave the messages on the server - exactly what one _does_
  > > when using IMAP. IMAP was built to solve _exactly_ your
  > > problem.

 > Yes, I think that is a very nice solution. Unfortunately, I have four
 > email addresses that are currently active (mainly due to past history of
 > needing to do dialup ISP access when traveling). One of the accounts
 > (mac.com) has an IMAP server so it sounds like I need to setup mac.com

The mac.com account is an IMAP account.
Unfortunately, it's not a very good one - very expensive
for the amount of space provided and their SMTP server
sadly requires that the From: address of anything sent
through it uses your @mac.com address, which makes it
pretty useless if you have a different address that you
use and just forward it over.

What I do is have all of my mail (from many more than
just four accounts/userIDs) forwarded to my fastmail.fm
address. I _never_ use my @fastmail.fm address itself
for anything except the internal step of doing the forwards.
All of my outgoing mail has a From: address which is
appropriate for the task at hand.

 > as an IMAP account and then either kill the other three addresses or
 > have them all point (forward?) to mac.com (once I get the IMAP account
 > setup). I wonder is there a clean way to do this???

If you have an address that you've been using for a long
time and can set it up to forward to your IMAP account
(wherever you end up with one), do that. Then, when
you have the other address forward to the new address,
you can even set up the new address with a filter to
toss stuff that came through the old addresses into
specific folders so that you'll know that anything you
get in those folders are things where you need to
nofify the sender of your new address.

You might want to try this all out with your Mac.com
address and Apple's server - you already have the
account. But you'll find that when leaving mail on
the server, 15MB is tiny. And their outgoing mail
restriction is really annoying (though you can get
around it by using your ISP's SMTP server instead of
Apple's).

If IMAP seems to be doing the job for you - and really,
it's exactly the way to deal with this - take a look at
the links I provided (I'll leave them below) and see what
the real deals out there for dedicated mail services are.

As I said, I use Fastmail.fm. $40/yr for 150MB (their
biggest account) and if you have a domain, you can even
point your MX record at their mail servers. That's
very spiffy (though I don't do that).

I've heard good things about RunBox.com, and also about
mailsnare.net



  > > See <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/imap/isps/#table>
  > > for a list of IMAP providers.
  > >
  > > I'm a very happy customer of <http://www.Fastmail.FM>

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No HTML in E-Mail! -- <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.expita.com/nomime.html" target="_blank">http://www.expita.com/nomime.html</a>
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In article <yob1xjwr4iv.fsf RemoveThis @panix2.panix.com>,
BreadWithSpam RemoveThis @fractious.net wrote:

 > Frank McGirt <fmcgirt RemoveThis @mac.com> writes:
  > > In article <yobhdsshiih.fsf RemoveThis @panix3.panix.com>,
  > > BreadWithSpam RemoveThis @fractious.net wrote:
 >
   > > > The real solution is to use an IMAP server and, really, to
   > > > leave the messages on the server - exactly what one _does_
   > > > when using IMAP. IMAP was built to solve _exactly_ your
   > > > problem.
 >
  > > Yes, I think that is a very nice solution. Unfortunately, I have four
  > > email addresses that are currently active (mainly due to past history of
  > > needing to do dialup ISP access when traveling). One of the accounts
  > > (mac.com) has an IMAP server so it sounds like I need to setup mac.com
 >
 > The mac.com account is an IMAP account.
 > Unfortunately, it's not a very good one - very expensive
 > for the amount of space provided and their SMTP server
 > sadly requires that the From: address of anything sent
 > through it uses your @mac.com address, which makes it
 > pretty useless if you have a different address that you
 > use and just forward it over.
 >
 > What I do is have all of my mail (from many more than
 > just four accounts/userIDs) forwarded to my fastmail.fm
 > address. I _never_ use my @fastmail.fm address itself
 > for anything except the internal step of doing the forwards.
 > All of my outgoing mail has a From: address which is
 > appropriate for the task at hand.
 >
  > > as an IMAP account and then either kill the other three addresses or
  > > have them all point (forward?) to mac.com (once I get the IMAP account
  > > setup). I wonder is there a clean way to do this???
 >
 > If you have an address that you've been using for a long
 > time and can set it up to forward to your IMAP account
 > (wherever you end up with one), do that. Then, when
 > you have the other address forward to the new address,
 > you can even set up the new address with a filter to
 > toss stuff that came through the old addresses into
 > specific folders so that you'll know that anything you
 > get in those folders are things where you need to
 > nofify the sender of your new address.
 >
 > You might want to try this all out with your Mac.com
 > address and Apple's server - you already have the
 > account. But you'll find that when leaving mail on
 > the server, 15MB is tiny. And their outgoing mail
 > restriction is really annoying (though you can get
 > around it by using your ISP's SMTP server instead of
 > Apple's).
 >
 > If IMAP seems to be doing the job for you - and really,
 > it's exactly the way to deal with this - take a look at
 > the links I provided (I'll leave them below) and see what
 > the real deals out there for dedicated mail services are.
 >
 > As I said, I use Fastmail.fm. $40/yr for 150MB (their
 > biggest account) and if you have a domain, you can even
 > point your MX record at their mail servers. That's
 > very spiffy (though I don't do that).
 >
 > I've heard good things about RunBox.com, and also about
 > mailsnare.net
 >
 >
 >
   > > > See <http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/imap/isps/#table>
   > > > for a list of IMAP providers.
   > > >
   > > > I'm a very happy customer of <http://www.Fastmail.FM>

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will go ahead and play with the
..mac IMAP stuff for the time being. I think I will reproduce all my
current POP mailboxes as empty IMAP mboxes under the new .mac IMAP
account and then see how it works out on my first trip with the PB. On
my return I can go through the IMAP mboxes keeping what I need in the
old POP mboxes of the same name on both the PB and PM. I presume if I
take the IMAP account "Offline" on the PB that anything I do to the
"Online" account on the PM will not affect the PB and then when the PB
goes back "Online" the IMAP account will be re-synchronized on the
server.

Again thanks for the help.

Frank<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: How To Sync Mail Between Desktop and Laptop 

On 2004-07-01 01:21:34 +0100, Frank McGirt <fmcgirt RemoveThis @mac.com> said:

 > Thanks for all the suggestions. I will go ahead and play with the
 > .mac IMAP stuff for the time being. I think I will reproduce all my
 > current POP mailboxes as empty IMAP mboxes under the new .mac IMAP
 > account and then see how it works out on my first trip with the PB. On
 > my return I can go through the IMAP mboxes keeping what I need in the
 > old POP mboxes of the same name on both the PB and PM. I presume if I
 > take the IMAP account "Offline" on the PB that anything I do to the
 > "Online" account on the PM will not affect the PB and then when the PB
 > goes back "Online" the IMAP account will be re-synchronized on the
 > server.
 >
 > Again thanks for the help.
 >

For the future, you might also like to look at Fetchmail (see
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/" target="_blank">http://catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/</a>). This little bit of Unix software can
be set up to go to all your POP (or other) e-mail accounts and download
your mail into one integrated IMAP account. Then you can use just one
client to get all your e-mails from wherever they come.

Just a thought.

--
Regards
Andy, G8TQH
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.rickham.net/" target="_blank">http://www.rickham.net/</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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