eMail issues: mail.app vs. Outlook

[RebelScum]

This is very likey a simple fix, so I appreciate your help in advance and your bearing with me.

On my iMac (10.5.8) I use mail.app to read my gmail account. On my Dell netbook (Windows 7) I use Outlook. Pretty standard stuff.

But when one app downloads the message from the server, the other app doesn't. This is a major problem because I need to consolidate my emails all the time.

Outlook has "Leave a copy on the server" checked and mail.app has "Delete from server" unchecked.

Other than this, the gmail account functions perfectly in both apps.

Someone PLEASE send me a solution to this stupid, stupid problem!

Cheers

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EDIT: Issue resolved; I was using POP when I should ave been using IMAP. Thanks anyway

 

[dyn]

When you have the option "leave messages on server" it looks like you have a pop3 account. Pop3 pulls the mail from the server but with that option enabled it will leave those messages on the server. This comes in handy when you have multiple clients. However if you use the same account on multiple machines/devices and you have the desire to consolidate your mail pop3 is a baaaaaaad idea. Pop3 won't sync your sent messages or any other mailfolders you have, it will only pull new mail in your inbox to your mailclient.

There is a solution to this and it's called IMAP. IMAP is a way of letting the mailclient interact with the mailserver. Everything it does (well, nearly everything) is done on the mailserver. If you create a new mailbox it will be created on the server, if you delete a message it will be deleted on the server, if you sent mail, it will be there on the server. This means that whatever mailclient on whatever machine/device you use your mailaccount will be the same. Mail on your iPhone will be the same as on your MacBook and Mac mini and even on your Windows pc running Outlook (just to name some machines/devices). The only problem you have is that you'll need internet access for it to work. However, most mailclients (such as Mail) have the ability to cache some mail locally so you can use it offline.

What you need to do is remove the current pop3 account you have and replace it with a new IMAP one. In Leopard you need to manually add the Gmail account since the wizard will set it up as pop3. Snow Leopard seems to do it the other way around, the wizards sets it up as an IMAP account. If you want to play safe, set up your account manually. Google had the instructions on how to do so: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12806 (there are guides for Outlook and Mail). Don't forget to enable IMAP in your gmail account first.

This might be useful for anyone looking for the same problem and ending up here via a search on this forum.