Mail, Gmail, IMAP, on two+ computers where everything is the same?

[coocooforcocoap]

Hi, I recently dumped Entourage and have set up Apple Mail to work with my Gmail and MobileMe accounts via IMAP (I used this tip: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2008041016554622) and it works great on my iMac.

But now I want the exact same thing on my MacBookPro (and possibly on a macbook). I also want to know/understand what and where all the bits are and go for Apple Mail, as getting multiple computers to work/look the same would require this no?

So far here is what I understand:
user/library/mail & user/library/mail attachments has the content
user/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist has the settings

So I thought I could just use chronosync to keep these files/folders in sync, but when I do things get really messed up. Perhaps I need to sync mail.app too?

So what is everyone doing to have an identical mail system on multiple computers?

Thx so much in advance for your help!
coocoo

 

[MacManiac76]

Well using IMAP your setups should look the same once you sync each system with the mail server. IMAP synchronizes with the server so basically you are viewing your mail from the server instead of directly on your machine. The only thing you should need to sync is if you happen to save messages to local folders. Otherwise all should just sync on its own using IMAP.

 

[coocooforcocoap]

Well using IMAP your setups should look the same once you sync each system with the mail server. IMAP synchronizes with the server so basically you are viewing your mail from the server instead of directly on your machine. The only thing you should need to sync is if you happen to save messages to local folders. Otherwise all should just sync on its own using IMAP.

Thx for that, and I guess i should be clear, i understand about the IMAP content, but what about all the rest? All the other preferences like font size, tool bars, order of sidebar lists, colors, etc. PLUS of course those folders created in the "ON MY MAC" Section. And I suppose the RSS part too. I tried to sync the plist with chronsync and things got so messed up, I had to start over.

I guess I could just do all of the above manually (but don't know how for ON MY MAC stuff) - but if I have to do this on 4 machines or so, that would be tedious.

Is that a cleared description of what I want? thx for your help!!!
coocoo

PS, One more Q: The Junk folder acts a bit strange, as when I mark something not junk, it just stays there. Is that the way it's supposed to work? I guess you would have to move it to where... Hmmm...

 

[MacManiac76]

OK I see what you want now. For the On My Mac stuff I'm guessing you will have to do it by hand. I'm guessing when you copied the .plist file over it was looking for On My Mac folders that didn't exist on that system and that's why made Mail go crazy.

As far as the Junk folder goes, I don't use it with IMAP as per suggested by Google in their GMail setup instructions.

 

[coocooforcocoap]

thx maniac, i think i am getting this all sorted. but what do you mean by hand? where are the folders/files/messages for On My Mac located? If they are segregated neatly, I could use chronosync to match them up with multiple machines.

As far as listening to google, hope that works for you. they have some crazy stuff on how to set up imap

But Junk works fine, if not junk, u can just drag it back into the imap chain as i just discovered, albeit one step that should be programmatic inmo.

Anyway, all in all becoming very happy with Apple Mail after being stuck in Outlook/Entourage all those years,
Cheers,
coocoo