IMAP loses emails?

[Richard B]

Whether using Windows Mail or Outlook 2007, and irrespective of the email
hosting provider (have tried two), I have found that with an IMAP Inbox,
synchronization is periodically entirely lost. In WM, the Inbox email
headers get reloaded from scratch; in Outlook the emails display the header
icon. The consequence is that every email in the Inbox has to be re-synched
- which can take hours. The workaround I've tried to adopt is moving all
emails older than 2 weeks to a subfolder - which always remains synched -
unlike the Inbox. Having done this a couple of times, I've found on both
occasions that emails get lost during the move, presumably because I've
initiated the move of emails from the client, and the synch process has
somehow been interrupted. Is it unwise to move emails to IMAP subfolders,
and is the loss of Inbox synchronization "normal"?? Thanks ...

 

[JSA-Poulsbo]

Richard:
On any competant imap client what you are doing is perfectly handled and
perfectly permissable with a persistant connection.

If you are only intermitantly connected, (such as when you download and read
mail while on a plane or something) then there is a potential for come
inconsistancies.

But in a machine connected to the net (any net) with an always up connection
you should have no problem moving mails from one folder to another, and the
change should be instantly reflected on the server and by any other client
connected to that imap account. (for some values of "instantly" - within
seconds).

However, I too see THE SAME PROBLEM that you mention. If I drag 10 messages
from one IMAP folder to another, it might move 1 or 2 or none. If I drag
them one at a time it almost always works.

This is a flaw in Windows Mail. (Hense my caviat above about "competant
Imap client" - something windows mail is pathetically far from.)

Depending on which computer I'm at, I access all of my Imap accounts (three
different servers) using Kmail (linux), Eudora, Pegasus, Seamonkey (mozilla)
and Windows Mail (Microsoft's Flagship Vista). Only Windows Mail fails.
Even my older Outlook Express handled moving mails correctly.

Its a pretty pathetic situation.

 

[Richard B]

Hi, many thanks for your reply.

I did arrive at the same conclusion and have stopped using windows mail. In
fact Outlook doesn't lose synch as I had thought - it's windows mail that
loses sync and then resets all the flags on the server - which outlook then
picks up.

definately not fit-for-purpose ...