I have outlook 2003 installed on a system that has an IMAP account an a legacy PST / POP 3 account. For some reason when I send an email using the IMAP account the mail appears in the sent items folder in the "Personal Folders" section rather than the sent items in the IMAP account – how can this be rectified?
Outlook IMAP Sent messages in wrong folder
emailimapoutlookoutlook-2003
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How do I setup IMAP (client and server) so that every client using the same email account has the same folder structure.
If all clients are accessing the same account then their folder structure will always be the same. This is because all folders are stored server side, so there is only ever one master copy.
Saying that, you can affect the "view" of that folder structure by what is called subscriptions. Which is a record of which folders a client wishes to see. However most subscriptions are also stored server-side. So if all clients are connecting to the same account then their subscriptions should all remain the same.
These is an IMAP alternative to this called shared folders. Which allows clients with different accounts to share a folder from another location. But if you're not providing the IMAP server yourself then it may not be available. So we'll go no further with that.
Our server mail setup doesn't support email rules ("if sender is foo, move email to Important"), so there is no way to centrally and automatically send emails to certain folders. Is there a way to solve this? We are using Outlook Express on Win XP PCs, but I rather not create the rules on each client as this is cumbersome to maintain.
Without the use of server-side filters there isn't much you can do about this.
Should we migrate from Outlook Express to another client that isn't tied to Windows (we're currently using Win XP on all PCs)? I mean, Outlook Express has been replaced by other software in newer versions of Windows so using, say, Thunderbird might be safer?
Outlook has never been a great IMAP player. OE's implementation of the IMAP spec has always been OK. Certainly it performed better than straight Outlook for a very long time. Outlook 2007 was the first straight Outlook to really work, having finally added support for server-side Sent Items. But there are still a heap of things missing. Such as the ability to use other server-side builtin folders and define delete actions.
Thunderbird does however perform very well. The biggest blocker for it's uptake (IMHO) is it's unfamiliarity to Outlook users and lack of corporate image. If you're able to make the change though, as in your users won't mind, then absolutely do so.
Microsoft doesn't recommend storing PST files on shared folders. It works, but you can end up making good friends with the SCANPST utility if you have dodgy network connectivity or the server computer is started while clients are "connected" to their PST files.
You cannot connect multiple Microsoft Outlook clients to the same PST file simultaneously. There was a very hackish replication function called "Net Folders" in some versions of Outlook. I never used it in production and found that it worked very poorly in test lab scenarios.
The "official" Microsoft solution for what you're looking for would be Exchange Server. That's a pretty expensive pill to swallow, but it'll do what you want.
Outlook 2003 doesn't "do IMAP" very well. It treats an IMAP server a lot like a POP3 server-- downloading data from the server and storing it locally. Outlook 2007 does a better job and preserves most of the "IMAP experience" of keeping data stored server-side. Having said that, though, I've never tried to "connect" multiple Outlook 2007 clients to the same IMAP folder at the same time. It should work fine, but you might see "strangeness" if multiple clients are interacting with the same messages simultaneously (filing them into subfolders at the same time, for example).
If you can't use Outlook 2007 you might want to consider using either Outlook Express or a free/open-source IMAP client (Thunderbird, for example) to get a better IMAP experience. Outlook 2003, though, is right out. Likewise attempting to "connect" multiple users to the same PST file simultaneously.
Best Answer
Dunno about 2003 but Kara's actions are confirmed for 2007. I would be surprised if there are that many changes to the layout of the dialog and options in 2007, so I'll give you sample instructions for that.
You will need to use the Tools->Accounts menu. Select the account in the Email tab and click "Change". Click "More Settings" in the "Change Email Account" dialog, which gives you "Internet Email Settings". Click the 2nd tab "Folders", then click the lower radio button, then select the "Sent" box for your IMAP account. Answer [OK] to all of your remaining dialogs. If you don't see an immediate change (you should), close and re-open Outlook.
Gave Kara +1 for hitting the correct answer first. :)