Help me sync mac mail

December 6, 2011 11:29 AM

I have four devices that I use for email. Macbook, desktop mac, ipad and ipod touch. I use mac mail to read my email on my laptop. To make this more confusing, I use an independent server ( not gmail, yahoo, yadda) I would like to be able to sync my mac mail app across all my devices so I can have a current email file on any of device at any given time. Is this possible?
posted by citybuddha to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

If your mail server is IMAP, and your mail accounts are configured so that everything is stored on the IMAP server (sent mail, deleted mail, spam, etc), then I believe that will do what you want.

Each device will connect to the IMAP server to fetch and send mail. They may build local caches of some messages, to speed access time, but the "real data" will always live on the server.
posted by browse at 11:39 AM on December 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

Exactly as browse says: IMAP is the answer - all your devices can handle it, it's been standard for years so your provider probably offers it - just be aware that if you're currently downloading all your mail via POP you may eventually need more storage space with your provider as the data stays on the server.
posted by dirm at 11:44 AM on December 6, 2011

Thirding IMAP. If your provider doesn't support IMAP, switch to one who does and you can just drag all your old mails over (assuming they give you enough space). IMAP is wonderful.
posted by zsazsa at 2:35 PM on December 6, 2011

IMAP is the answer. You can also configure your "main" client to download copies to the local hard drive so you have a backup.
posted by gjc at 7:03 AM on December 7, 2011