A question of where Outlook stores its download info

[Guest]

Does anyone know where Outlook stores the information of which emails it has
downloaded? I'm not talking of the emails themselves (the pst file).
I want to synchronize my emails in Outlook 2002 and use it on two or more
computers. I transfer the pst. file over to the other computer, but when I do
a send/receive I get the downloads that I already did on the other computer!
(I have Outlook set to leave a copy on the server for a few days and wish to
leave it that way.)
Is there a way to also synchronize the information that Outlook keeps which
tells it which emails it has already downloaded? Obviously it is not included
in the pst files. (It stored and used somewhere because the same computer
will never double download.) Where does Outlook store that information? I
have read a few webpages (slipstick, for example) that describe the location
and functions of Outlook files, but can't see anything about where Outlook
stores this type of information. Thanks for your help.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

Does anyone know where Outlook stores the information of which emails it has
downloaded? I'm not talking of the emails themselves (the pst file).
I want to synchronize my emails in Outlook 2002 and use it on two or more
computers. I transfer the pst. file over to the other computer, but when I do
a send/receive I get the downloads that I already did on the other computer!
(I have Outlook set to leave a copy on the server for a few days and wish to
leave it that way.)
Is there a way to also synchronize the information that Outlook keeps which
tells it which emails it has already downloaded? Obviously it is not included
in the pst files. (It stored and used somewhere because the same computer
will never double download.) Where does Outlook store that information? I
have read a few webpages (slipstick, for example) that describe the location
and functions of Outlook files, but can't see anything about where Outlook
stores this type of information. Thanks for your help.

As long as you have Outlook set to leave a copy of your e-mail on the
server, Outlook will see it as NEW mail and download it EVERY time
that Outlook checks the mail UNTIL you delete it off the server.

In fact, as long as you have ANY email client set to leave a copy of
your e-mail on the server, it will ALWAYS appear as new mail, and your
e-mail client will download it AGAIN every time you check the mail in
your e-mail client UNTIL you delete it off the server.

ALL downloaded and saved e-mail is stored in the Outlook .pst file,
found at "C:\Documents and Settings\<Profile>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook"

Substitute your Profile for "<Profile>" above.

Also, I don't know about Office XP (Office 2002), but if you click on
"Tools|Options", then click on the "Mail Setup" tab, you will see a
button ("Data Files") to the folder where your Outlook data files are
kept.

Your ONLY way around this is by UNCHECKING "Leave a copy on the server
until deleted from the Trashcan" in the Account Wizard.

Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread
so that conversations may be kept in order
=======================================================

 

[Gordon]

As long as you have Outlook set to leave a copy of your e-mail on the
server, Outlook will see it as NEW mail and download it EVERY time
that Outlook checks the mail UNTIL you delete it off the server.

Not so. I have Outlook at work set to keep a copy of mail on server for two
of my personal POP accounts and it definitely does NOT consider each email
as new every time I do a send and receive. It downloads the mail as new and
then stops. It does NOT download the mail again the next time I access it.

 

[Guest]

I agree with you Gordon. I only get repeat downloads when I have moved my pst
file over to another computer and do a send/receive from there. The second
computer will see the mail on the server as new and download it because I
haven't also carrried over the information that the first computer has about
what has been downloaded. (It is not included in the pst.)
I was reading that that information is stored in a POP3UIDL.DAT file. The
only POP3UIDL.DAT files I can find in my computer belong to Outlook Express
accounts. Where does Outlook store this information? Does anybody know.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

Not so. I have Outlook at work set to keep a copy of mail on server for two
of my personal POP accounts and it definitely does NOT consider each email
as new every time I do a send and receive. It downloads the mail as new and
then stops. It does NOT download the mail again the next time I access it.

Tell me something: Didn't I say EXACTLY what you said, but with
different words?

The fact is, as long as you have Outlook set to keep a copy of all
email on the server, Outlook will attempt to download it EACH time you
check for mail on that server IN A NEW session of Outlook after
closing it down.

At least this is the way it works in my installation of Outlook 2003.
however, it is possible that I've set my account server-side to never
mark email as "read" after being downloaded by the client.

Maybe we are misunderstanding each other when I wrote "new". Perhaps
I used the wrong term there. I guess the term "new" in Outlook
technically means "new and unread" when referring to mail on the
server. I did not use the term "new" in that way.
Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread
so that conversations may be kept in order
=======================================================

 

[Guest]

Donald,
I supppose each Outlook behaves a bit differently. I have 2002 and I see you
have 2003. Even if I close down Outlook and reopen it in the same computer I
will not get repeat downloads. However it is at another computer (where I
have transferred the updated pst file to) that I get the download of the
emails already downloaded in the first computer.
You said something that intrigues me and may solve my problem. You said:

At least this is the way it works in my installation of Outlook 2003.
however, it is possible that I've set my account server-side to never
mark email as "read" after being downloaded by the client.

In Outlook 2003 do you have a setting to only download emails from the
servers that are marked unread? I don't see one in 2002. If I was able to
tell Outlook to do that then that would solve my double download problem,
because when I download an email the first time it gets marked as read on the
server. If I then did a send/recieve from the second computer (and could tell
its Outlook to only download unread messages) then I wouldn't get the
duplicate messages on different machines.
Have you got such a setting?

 

[Donald McDaniel]

Donald,
I supppose each Outlook behaves a bit differently. I have 2002 and I see you
have 2003. Even if I close down Outlook and reopen it in the same computer I
will not get repeat downloads. However it is at another computer (where I
have transferred the updated pst file to) that I get the download of the
emails already downloaded in the first computer.
You said something that intrigues me and may solve my problem. You said:
In Outlook 2003 do you have a setting to only download emails from the
servers that are marked unread? I don't see one in 2002. If I was able to
tell Outlook to do that then that would solve my double download problem,
because when I download an email the first time it gets marked as read on the
server. If I then did a send/recieve from the second computer (and could tell
its Outlook to only download unread messages) then I wouldn't get the
duplicate messages on different machines.
Have you got such a setting?

Just checked all account settings and Outlook 2003 options, and can't
find any setting to only download messages which have never been
downloaded.

I also forgot to add that I have Outlook 2003 set to always mark ALL
email as read after it has been downloaded.

DonaldDonald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread
so that conversations may be kept in order
=======================================================

 

[Guest]

Thanks for checking. It would still probably be simplist to just syncrhonize
the the file where OUtlook stores its download info but no reader yet has
been able to tell me where to find it.

 

[Guest]

I don't know if you are still interested but I am having a similar problem
with Outlook 2003. In my case the emails are downloading repeatedly on the
same machine (after closing and re-opening Outlook email messages are
downloaded again). I have checked the 'Leave a copy on server' switch and
wish to keep this option.
Did you ever get any further with your enquiries?
I am seriously considering going back to the free and reliable Express
version which never gave me any trouble!

Help

 

[Guest]

I don't know if you are still interested but I am having a similar problem
with Outlook 2003. In my case the emails are downloading repeatedly on the
same machine (after closing and re-opening Outlook email messages are
downloaded again). I have checked the 'Leave a copy on server' switch and
wish to keep this option.
Did you ever get any further with your enquiries?
I am seriously considering going back to the free and reliable Express
version which never gave me any trouble!

Help

 

[Guest]

I never resolved the problem but at least I don't redownload on the same
computer. good luck. I think I did hear that outlook 2002 and 2003 have
different setups on terms of where they store the info.
Have you considered that the mail server might not be marking your emails as
read when you download them and Outlook therefore downloads them again the
next time you do a send-receive (thinking they are fresh)?

 

[Guest]

I never resolved the problem but at least I don't redownload on the same
computer. good luck. I think I did hear that outlook 2002 and 2003 have
different setups on terms of where they store the info.
Have you considered that the mail server might not be marking your emails as
read when you download them and Outlook therefore downloads them again the
next time you do a send-receive (thinking they are fresh)?