Synchronizing email saved in Outlook with ISP-mail

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G

Guest

Hello,

How can I restore my Outlook file (with folder structure intact) and
synchronize with my ISP (Comcast.net) without duplicating everything that's
already on my restored Outlook file?
 
SteveG said:
How can I restore my Outlook file (with folder structure intact) and
synchronize with my ISP (Comcast.net) without duplicating
everything that's already on my restored Outlook file?
Click to expand...

Were you POPPING your email and NOT leaving it on the server?
Assuming MS Outlook (not express) - import the PST, setup your ISP in
Outlook - go. None of the mail in your PST is on the server anymore anyway.

If you were leaving stuff on their server, well then - I cannot think of an
easy way. However - you know there is no reason, with Outlook (assuming you
have not mistaken Outlook and Outlook Express for one another) - for you to
actually RESTORE the file. Just open the data file in Outlook. Sure - you
won't have all your folder structure in your Personal folders yet - but
(honestly - I have seen some large email folder lists) - you probably didn't
need quite that many folder and will be better organized with the new stuff
while creating it now that you have already had one system in place. AND -
you will still have fuill access to your old email (via the opened PST file)
anytime you like.
 
Shenan,

Thanks. That's what I thought also and you confirmed it. However, if I've
set the server mail to delete upon deletion from Outlook (not Express), when
will the server actually delete the records if they're kept in a backup file?

P.S. Seems to me that someone could write a utility to check for duplicates
and delete the one that isn't linked to the Comcast email file. Right now the
new ones are all unread and the old ones are all read.
 
SteveG said:
Shenan,

Thanks. That's what I thought also and you confirmed it. However, if
I've set the server mail to delete upon deletion from Outlook (not
Express), when will the server actually delete the records if they're
kept in a backup file?
Click to expand...

I think you're labouring under a misaprehension here. Your ISPs mail server
and the backups you've made of your pst file are two entirely different
things. The server has NO interaction with your backup file whatsoever - how
can it? If you have set outlook (and this is the default setting btw) to NOT
keep messages on the server, then they are removed from the server the
instant you download them into Outlook. The fact that you have then made a
backup of these messages on your LOCAL machine, means that you actually have
two sets of email data - one that is "active" and is in daily use whenever
you use Outlook, and another "inactive" which is sitting on your HDD (or
wherever you stored it) against a rainy day when your active pst fails!

HTH
 
Hello,

Thank you for responding. However, I set my server setting to delete ONLY
when I delete them off of my Outlook copy, i.e., I've got 1,600+ emails
sitting waiting to be deleted out of the server. If I start with a fresh
database and use the backup as a kind-of archive, then how will the server
know that it no longer needs to store the 1,600 emails?
 
SteveG said:
Hello,

Thank you for responding. However, I set my server setting to delete
ONLY when I delete them off of my Outlook copy, i.e., I've got 1,600+
emails sitting waiting to be deleted out of the server. If I start
with a fresh database and use the backup as a kind-of archive, then
how will the server know that it no longer needs to store the 1,600
emails?
Click to expand...

It won't. You've got two choices AFAIK... download all the mail from the
server and then go through deleting duplicates, or log on with Webmail (if
your ISP has that facility - most seem to nowadays) and delete the ones you
don't want off the server directly.
 
Gordon,

Thank you so much for your response. I've downloaded the file and everything
is duplicated. However, as I'm testing this out, it looks like when I delete
one of the duplicates from my Outlook file it also deletes the only copy of
the email on the server. Is there a way to get it to ignore deleting the
server copy until I get through deleting the Outlook copy?
 
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