Rules on two machines

[Guest]

I have an XP Pro laptop and Vista desktop. Both have Outlook 03. I use my
laptop as a "server" in a way so I always have everything with me when I take
off. So, the Outlook data files on the laptop are c:\Documents and
Settings\user\etc. .pst. On the Vista the location is \\sharename\user\etc.
..pst. The both point to the same .pst from two different locations. It
works great.

Except for rules. I have about 20 rules set up and if they all work on the
laptop, as soon as I close Outlook there and move to the desktop, I get an
error when I send or receive and email that triggers a rule. If I go in on
the Vista machine and re-check the rule it works on the Vista desktop. Then
when I close and go back to the XP lappy I get the error again....on and on
it goes.

I do NOT have "on this machine only" checked on any of the rules. Is there
any way to get the rules to work right on both machines?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I do NOT have "on this machine only" checked on any of the rules. Is
there any way to get the rules to work right on both machines?

I don't think so. The rules contain references to the PST path as well,
which is different on each machine. You have to reinform Outlook of the
difference each time you reference the PST from a difference Outlook
instance. What you are doing is completely unsupported and may lead to
corruption of your PST.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. I have been doing this setup for a couple years. No
problems.

I do know what you're talking about in terms of why the rules aren't
working. I might have found a workaround though. Instead of having the data
file path on the laptop be to c:\documents..........\.........\.pst, I
changed it so the path is \\laptop\documents......\.....\.pst. So now no
matter which computer I open Outlook on, the path is exactly the same and the
rules aren't confused. It is a little weird to use a network share when the
"server" is also the "client", but so far the rules work no matter which
computer I open Outlook on.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I do know what you're talking about in terms of why the rules aren't
working. I might have found a workaround though. Instead of having
the data file path on the laptop be to
c:\documents..........\.........\.pst, I changed it so the path is
\\laptop\documents......\.....\.pst. So now no matter which computer
I open Outlook on, the path is exactly the same and the rules aren't
confused. It is a little weird to use a network share when the
"server" is also the "client", but so far the rules work no matter
which computer I open Outlook on.

I'm glad it's working now, but be sure to make frequent backups.