Hi everybody! I run into this kinda stupid problem with managing my multiple email accounts on multiple computers, and I'd like to hear how you guys deal with it. Here's the problem: I have a laptop at home and a laptop at work, both of which I use frequently. I have separate email accounts for work, life and such. Now what I want to do is to access all the accounts on all computers with ease. I'm sure this is very common for most of you, but I can't really figure out a simple way to synchronize the emails. I used to use Outlook Express but it's good for only one computer. Outlook on two computers don't synchronize in terms of local folder structures and which emails are read and which are not... This must be a problem that a lot of people run into and I guess there should be a really simple way to make it straight, but I'm really stuck...

I route all of my various email providers into GMail. Awesome search functionality, decent organizational tools and virtually no spam even if the other inboxes try to pass it through.

I use Thunderbird on two different machines and collecting email for 3 different email accounts. Two of those accounts are on the same IMAP server and the third (work) is on a different IMAP server. With IMAP the server allows you to store the mail on the server and it remembers the read state of the messages. So, whichever of the two PCs I connect with will download the messages and the read/reply state will be synced with the other machine. If a message is moved into a different folder locally (such as archiving) this change will be passed back to the IMAP server and the change will be reflected on the other PC when I next log in.

In addition Thunderbird allows you to archive emails with a single key press as well as setting colour coded tags (important, follow-up, done, etc) and the state of these is also synced from machine to machine automatically via the IMAP server. In addition you can download to your local machine for offline reading so you can still read/type replies when not connected/traveling etc. Lastly you can choose between several different folder layouts such as having each email account in its own in-box or using a unified in-box for all accounts.

I am pretty sure that Outlook will allow you to do the same thing (connect to IMAP servers) at least for your personal email. The problem may be your work email. Some companies aren't very flexible as to how they allow you off-site access to email.

[Edited by - Obscure on April 19, 2010 4:35:34 AM]

I don't get emails :(

all on gmail

I use Opera mail (on Windows) and Evolution (on Linux) to collect emails from various different accounts. IMAP ensures that everything stays synced between the various clients and web interfaces.

Gmail has by far the best email service out there. The only downside is their awkward IMAP implementation.

I'm also using IMAP like most people here.

I only use a GMail account for high volume mailing lists, but it's always been annoying me because it's so slow (it has a high latency compared to local email clients, even when I'm directly in my university's network which has pretty awesome internet connectivity). Then I stumbled by accident onto the so-called Flaky Connection Mode. You have to enable the Offline mail feature and then click on its icon to switch to Flaky Connection Mode. Once you're there, switching between message threads is actually as fast as with normal email clients in 90% of the cases.

I get a crapton of e-mail in about 12 different inboxes. I use Gmail checker for Firefox to check them all, but I'm not really happy with it. I'd love to be able to use gmail with tabs or something for each inbox.

Windows Live Mail is the successor to Outlook Express (and an extension of the mail client built into Vista); it's a very good free email client, and naturally supports IMAP (which is what I use to keep things in sync between work, home and my mobile phone). It also works with some webmail services (e.g. Hotmail) if you use those. Each IMAP account shows up separately in the tree view, and when composing messages you have a drop-down box to select which account to send the message from. IMAP understands folders, too, allowing you to synchronise drafts, sent and deleted items between different machines, as well as your own custom folders.

I just wonder why POP3 hasn't died out completely by now...

Seems like IMAP is answer for me. Thanks!