Synchronizing mail on two computers

From MozillaZine Knowledge Base
Revision as of 22:50, 11 February 2007 by Tanstaafl (talk | contribs) (rewording prior to moving article)
Jump to navigationJump to search
This article was written for Thunderbird but also applies to Mozilla Suite / SeaMonkey (though some menu sequences may differ).

There are several different ways to synchronize messages on two different computers.

  • If possible, switch to an IMAP account. All your mail (incoming, outgoing, drafts, etc.) will be stored on the server and be accessible from multiple computers. Many IMAP providers also let you configure your account (server-side) to fetch mail from separate POP accounts. You could also use the Synch Kolab extension to synchronize your address books.
  • Try Synching Thunder, which was designed to synchronize Thunderbird mail stored on different computers. Make sure to read the installation notes and other documentation carefully.
  • Install Thunderbird separately on each computer but store your profile on a portable USB device or on a network file share. To launch Thunderbird with that profile, use the -profile "path" command line argument.
  • Set Thunderbird to leave incoming mail on the server (for a long enough period of time) so that the same messages can be downloaded on both computers.
  • For the secondary computer only (such as a laptop), go to "Tools -> Account Settings -> [account name] -> Server Settings", check the box for "Leave messages on server", and then set "Tools -> Account Settings -> Copies & Folders -> Bcc these email addresses" to automatically send yourself a copy of any messages you send. On your primary computer write a message filter that moves those messages to your Sent folder and marks them as read.
  • If you don't care about synchronizing the folder(s) storing copies of messages you sent, check "Leave messages on server" and "For at most X days" in Tools -> Account Settings -> [account name] -> Server Settings on each computer.
  • Use a script or batch file like 4NT to synchronize the files in two profiles. This method is most likely to cause problems, especially if you forget to synchronize before doing something that modifies the profile.
  • FolderShare is a Windows Live service that lets you synchronize files across multiple devices, and share the files. It supports automatic and on-demand synching using server software that runs in the background.

See also