[TriLUG] Synching Mail folders in Mac OS X

[Joseph Tate]

David R.Matusiak wrote:

> First of all, sorry for any cross-posting, but this issue is driving 
> me batty and I'd like to ping as many Mac Users as possible to see if 
> anyone has come across such a thing or found a solution.
>
> Okay, so whats the problem?
>
> Situation:  I have a PowerBook at work and a PowerMac at home (both 
> running OS X 10.2.6) and I would like to have my mail folders sync up 
> between the two machines.  Sounds pretty simple, right?
>
> Well, for accounts that I access via IMAP, all the folders associated 
> with that account are naturally synched up because of the mail 
> protocol itself.  (i.e. the folders and the messages within them are 
> the same because my mail client [Mail.app on both machines] "sees" the 
> folders on the server that holds the mail messages).
>
> However, for POP mail accounts, Sent message folders, as well as all 
> "local" mail folders ("On My Mac") my messages are rarely in sync and 
> require a ridiculous amount of time and effort to manually sync them.  
> I have even considered the tip from _Mac OS X Hacks_ that tells you to 
> create a CVS repository on the PowerMac and then use CVS to 
> synchronize files between the two machines, but I have a sneaking 
> suspicion that this works for "conventional files" (i.e. NOT Macs 
> special mail folders) like HTML pages, JPG images, and PERL code 
> samples.  [Sorry I don't have the book with me right now, so I cannot 
> be more specific.]
>
> Needless to say, I would love to have my Sent messages folders and my 
> On My Mac mail folders look the same across the two machines.  This 
> way, I won't always have to be deleting certain messages twice or 
> wishing I was at work at 11:00 p.m. just so I can have access to a 
> message I sent that day.
>
> Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated!
> dave m.
>
I'd set up fetchmail to download all your POP mail to your IMAP 
account.  It's pretty easy to do, and there's plenty of documentation 
around on how to do that.

The other option that I used to use was to configure the mail client to 
leave messages on the server unless they're removed from your deleted 
items folder.  That still doesn't answer the sent mail folder problem, 
but if you configure your mail client to save sent mail to the IMAP sent 
folder, you're mostly there.