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One IMAP account, two Macs, possible? How?

Dark Goob

Dark Goob

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 6, 2007
184
45
Portland, OR
I have two Macs with the same user account cloned on both. The UNIX shortname is the same on both so that the file permissions will play nice when using firewire target disk mode for manual copying and syncing with ChronoSync.

However when I tried using Apple mail on both machines to access the same IMAP account, it would split the emails between both. Some emails would download to one Mac and some would download the other.

Is there a way around this??

Currently my workaround is to have gmail forward all my mail to a second account. This is not ideal, because when people respond to emails sent from the Mac that uses the secondary account, then those replies only go to that Mac but not the other!

So is there any way to just use one IMAP account with two Macs that have the same shortname, and NOT have it split up the emails that go to each?

I am willing to ditch gmail, if there's another IMAP service where this problem does not occur. Thanks,

-=DG=-

PS -- I'm on the latest 10.6.x.
 
Your UNIX user name should have nothing to do with retrieving IMAP mail. I think you have something else going on here. You should be able to check and send mail from multiple clients attached to the same IMAP account, regardless of your Mac account's user name.

Are you sure your mail program is set up to use IMAP and one isn't using POP?
 
smirk said:
Your UNIX user name should have nothing to do with retrieving IMAP mail. I think you have something else going on here. You should be able to check and send mail from multiple clients attached to the same IMAP account, regardless of your Mac account's user name.

Are you sure your mail program is set up to use IMAP and one isn't using POP?
Click to expand...

Yes I am sure I am set to IMAP. I remember even calling Applecare, and they said the shortname is the issue. But I guess I can try an experiment and make a new gmail to test if this is really the problem. Of course, if it isn't, that would be great, so we'll see.
 
I'll fourth that it sounds exactly like what'll happen if you're using POP, but if it turns out you really are on IMAP the most obvious other possibility is that you've actually got two separate accounts set up somehow (in which case replies to one would only go to that computer, and only some of the emails would be downloaded by each system). Check ALL the settings of the account and make sure they match exactly.

If that's not it, either, it could be something to do with syncronization--when you mention ChronoSync, is it synchronizing only files, or do you also have it sync'ing your user's Library folder?

If you want an example of how it's supposed to work, I'm sitting at my desktop, which pulls email form three different Gmail accounts (personal, freelance, day job) via IMAP, as does my laptop three feet away, which is using the same username (and Unix UID), as is my iPod Touch, and my work IMAP is also pulled by my computer at work, which is again the same shortname and UID. All of which do exactly what they're supposed to do with IMAP--show exactly the same emails, including which ones have been read and replied to.
 
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