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How can I get my email to show on two machines without losing my folders.

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  • Last reply by kinthings

kinthings
kinthings
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My husband and I just got new laptops. We each have two email accounts -- one gmail and one comcast. We also share a third gmail account. With all four computers (the old two and the new two running), for some of the accounts email only shows on one or another machine not both. It turns out my husband had the shared account set up as IMAP and all the others, including my set-up of the shared account are set-up as POP. In researching, it looks like we need to switch to POP. I tried it on the shared account and my emails up to about two weeks ago showed up. Before I do anything with our individual accounts, I want to be sure we won't get a bunch of duplication and that I won't lose all of the folders I have saved. The old machines are Vista and the new Windows 8.1. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

My husband and I just got new laptops. We each have two email accounts -- one gmail and one comcast. We also share a third gmail account. With all four computers (the old two and the new two running), for some of the accounts email only shows on one or another machine not both. It turns out my husband had the shared account set up as IMAP and all the others, including my set-up of the shared account are set-up as POP. In researching, it looks like we need to switch to POP. I tried it on the shared account and my emails up to about two weeks ago showed up. Before I do anything with our individual accounts, I want to be sure we won't get a bunch of duplication and that I won't lose all of the folders I have saved. The old machines are Vista and the new Windows 8.1. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

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Matt
Matt
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POP mail downloads the inbox and nothing else to your computer, it can also delete the mails from the inbox upon downloading. It is the major cause of some mail on some machines.

IMAP is a synchronized service and all devices configured with an IMAP account will have a replicated copy of all the folders and mails in the account (depending on settings of course) It ensures you see the same folders and mail on your phone, iPad Desktop, laptop etc. It also replicates moves and deletes.

Now to loosing folders. All folders "hang" off an account. The local folders account can not be deleted and therefore is an ideal place to store mail and folder you no not want synchronized by an imap server or deleted when you delete the account from Thunderbird.

kinthings
kinthings Question owner
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Thank you so much. This is my last step moving to my new computer and I am weary of solving the problems. To clarify ----

If I have my email set-up so that I have a filter that automatically moves a new email to a local folder, once I get it, it will then go there and I can access it even if I'm not connected to the network? The local folder and sub-folders are on my hard drive and the xxx@gmail.com is on the server?