Gmail, IMAP, and Outlook: a ménage à trois of questionable proportions.

January 15, 2008 9:07 PM

Two questions regarding the use of Outlook 2007 and Gmail's IMAP. Here are the questions; detailed explanations inside. -I use Gmail to pull mail and send from two other e-mail accounts. Is there a way to set Outlook up to do the same? -When I open Outlook, it creates a label called "Junk E-mail" in Gmail. Is there a way to stop this?

I'm working on setting Outlook 2007 up to use Gmail through IMAP, as I do prefer using a desktop client. In order to fully make the switch, though, I've got a couple little things I haven't figured out and would like help with.

As mentioned above, I use Gmail to pull my e-mail from three accounts: my Gmail account, my ISP e-mail account, and my school e-mail. In addition to pulling messages from the ISP and school accounts, it also lets me send messages from those two addresses. How do I duplicate this with Outlook? I know I can add another account, but I don't need it to check messages on those accounts; I only need to send messages from them. (Also, if anyone knows how to do this with Apple Mail and the iPhone's mail, that information would be appreciated, as I use Mail from time to time and will be using the iPhone's mail in the summer, when I get one.)

The second question is a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless, so I am including it here! Because Outlook has a hard-wired folder for spam called "Junk E-mail", when I open Outlook and then go back to the web interface for Gmail, I've got a label with that same name. I can delete it from there, but it's back the next time I open Outlook. Is there a way to disable this? If that means I have to disable Outlook's spam filtering, that's fine; Gmail does a good job of that, and Outlook sometimes ends up with false positives.

Thanks in advance, guys.

posted by phaded to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

it also lets me send messages from those two addresses

Keep in mind that it does "sort of". Any messages sent from Gmail using another account's address will still contain your gmail address in the headers. Some mail clients, such as Outlook, will (properly) render your message as showing "From [e-mail] sent on behalf of [e-mail]" instead of just [e-mail].

I know I can add another account, but I don't need it to check messages on those accounts

You'll still have to setup each of the accounts within Outlook, primarily to make it aware of each of your addresses and each of their SMTP servers. Just setup the accounts to not check your mail when online. When you send a message, you then have a choice of which "From" to use for sending. As long as you don't put in your username/password, you'll be sure it never tries to download the mail.

If that means I have to disable Outlook's spam filtering, that's fine

Glad you're okay with that suggestion... :) IMAP is about replication. If you (or your client) creates a new folder, it's created on the server.
posted by Spoonman at 6:22 AM on January 16, 2008

Response by poster: Hmm, I was hoping for/expecting more responses, but thanks for your answer, Spoonman.

Also, yeah, I know it only "sort of" lets you send from another account. Mainly, I would just like to reply to an email from the address it was sent to.
posted by phaded at 11:45 PM on January 16, 2008