I want to be able to check email
from multiple devices—I have a home computer, a work computer, and a smart
phone, and need the email kept in sync on all those devices. If I delete an
email on my phone, I’d love it if it was also deleted on my computers. Even
more importantly, if I read an email on my computer, it should appear as read
on all the other devices. This really isn’t working for me. Any suggestions?
This is a common problem, and one
that we’ve all battled over the years. With the proliferation of mobile devices
(Ken uses two computers, a phone, and an iPad daily, and checks email on them
all), things just get more and more complicated. Assuming that you’re using a
public email provider (like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or Outlook.com), you’re in
luck, but getting this configured correctly might take a little effort—the
solution is different for each email provider, and for each different email
client. If you’re just reading email in a browser, none of these issues
apply—you get synchronized email for free. But if you’re using an email client,
like Outlook or Mac Mail, then you do need to set up the configuration
correctly.
A little background first (and
there are some abbreviations coming—watch out!): All the current Web-based email
providers support two distinct protocols for retrieving email. The older
protocol, POP3, is simpler, but doesn’t support retrieving email on multiple
devices well—it wasn’t devised to handle complex synchronizing between multiple
clients. The more modern protocol, IMAP, is meant exactly for the kind of
synchronicity you desire.
If things aren’t working the way
you’d like, most likely, you’ve set up your email clients to use POP3 to
retrieve email. To solve the problem, you’ll need to revise your email client’s
settings so you are using IMAP. Each Web mail provider supplies Help content to
make it easy for you to set things up correctly, depending on the email client.
For example, Google provides the following page for Gmail users: http://goo.gl/lKpgfa.
Yahoo provides this page: http://goo.gl/xMsnfP.
If you’re using Outlook, you’ll find this page very helpful, as it
provides information about most major Web-based email providers: http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/accountsettings.htm.
We didn’t cover all the options here, so your best bet is to search the Web for
“<Your Email Host> IMAP settings <Your email client>”, as in:
“Gmail IMAP Settings Mac Mail”. You’ll easily find the information you need to
configure your mail client for IMAP.
Although POP3 still works, we
heartily recommend using IMAP for all email clients and all Web mail providers.
The flexibility and synchronization features definitely make it worth the time
it takes to change existing configurations.
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