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Office 365 or IMAP

digital
Grafter
Posts: 94
Registered: ‎11-04-2007

Office 365 or IMAP

I'm trying to help someone who has been using Office 365 on Outlook 2010 for email which is sent and received on either a desktop in their office, or their laptop at home or on the move. The idea is to be able to synchronise and read all sent and received emails on both machines. Unfortunately, Office 365 throws a hissy fit every so often when passwords need to be updated. It also has to be paid for.
So, as I have experience only of POP3, there's a few questions I would appreciate some help with...
Is it possible to replace Office 365 with IMAP?
Using IMAP, can emails sent from either machine be read on both?
Using IMAP, can emails received on the account be read on one even after being read first on the other?
Using IMAP, can all emails, sent and received, be stored on both machines for offline use and archiving rather than being left on the server?
Any gotchas not covered by the above?
Oh, and this is to run on a Plusnet account.
TIA
11 REPLIES 11
decomplexity
Rising Star
Posts: 493
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

- Using PN IMAP, can emails sent from either machine be read on both? YES
- Using PN IMAP, can emails received on the account be read on one even after being read first on the other? YES
- Using PN IMAP, can all emails, sent and received, be stored on both machines for offline use and archiving rather than being left on the server?
This is client dependent: there is no automatic mechanism in IMAP itself to keep email for offline use. But your Outlook 2010 has an auto-archive feature which allows email to be archived automatically by age.
- Any gotchas not covered by the above?
Sharing calendars and contacts? IMAP is email only, but the easiest way to share  contacts and calendars is to use a (free) outlook.com account for these (just ignore outlook.com email). Every worthwhile mail client supports IMAP, but on a PC only Microsoft products such as Outlook and Windows Live Mail support synching calendars and contacts with outlook.com (all current smartphones support it though).   
Zen from May 17. PN Business account from 2004 - 2017
digital
Grafter
Posts: 94
Registered: ‎11-04-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Thanks for that: appreciated!
Just to increase the complexity... can I throw in a third device in the shape of an Android smartphone (HTC One, I believe) and expect to still be able to share emails in all directions? I presume contacts and calendar stored in Outlook might be a problem?
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Using IMAP incoming emails are held on the server and can be read (using IMAP) by as many separate devices as desired - including webmail. Off-line capability depends on the client, in this case the email app on the smartphone.
Similarly what you can do with sent mail, contacts and calendars depends on the app.
My android based Nexus tablet puts copies of sent mail in the on-line sent folder so other devices can see it using IMAP.
David
quelquod
Pro
Posts: 668
Thanks: 163
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Irritatingly (buy hey it's Apple!  ;)) my Ipad doesn't put sent emails in the IMAP Sent folder, or at least I've not found a way. So I have set it to bcc me and I then manually copy them to the Sent folder so that they can be read/archived on other machines.
Democracy - 3 wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for lunch!
RPMozley
Pro
Posts: 1,339
Thanks: 83
Fixes: 13
Registered: ‎04-11-2011

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

It's in the advanced settings for your email account. Labelled under "Mailbox Behaviours" you can set the sent folder's location.
That's RPM to you!!
decomplexity
Rising Star
Posts: 493
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Q: Can an Android phone synch contacts and calendars and PN IMAP email with Outlook 2010
A: Yes. You set up two accounts on Android: an IMAP one for PN email and a 'Corporate' one for contacts and calendars (assuming you are using outlook.com to hold them and to act as a cloud intermediary between Outlook 2010 and Android). On Android 5.1 and 5.2, these appear as Gmail accounts ('big red M') but are in fact only using the Gmail Android email client (which works fine without needing to have a central gmail account).
The 'Corporate' account uses EAS - Microsoft's Exchange Active Synch - for synching outlook.com with both Outlook 2010 and the Android Gmail stock email client.
Zen from May 17. PN Business account from 2004 - 2017
digital
Grafter
Posts: 94
Registered: ‎11-04-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Thanks everyone. It's sounding like it will be possible to replace/emulate Office 365.
Just need the courage to do it without messing things up big time!
matthews
Rising Star
Posts: 145
Thanks: 8
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-08-2014

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

You'll have to watch out with regards to "forwarding" emails if you want to keep your custom domain.
It might be worth investigating using an Outlook.com or Gmail address instead of an IMAP one. The syncing capabilities of both of them allow for more than just email and obviously there's the web interface as a bonus.
If passwords are the issue, you can configure passwords to not expire in Office 365
digital
Grafter
Posts: 94
Registered: ‎11-04-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Quote from: matthews
If passwords are the issue, you can configure passwords to not expire in Office 365

I'd be grateful if you could enlighten me!
matthews
Rising Star
Posts: 145
Thanks: 8
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-08-2014

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

They keep moving stuff around, so it's quite a nightmare to keep up with these things, but if you go into the portal (https://portal.microsoftonline.com) and then on the left expand "Service Settings" and then there's a "Passwords" section in there
digital
Grafter
Posts: 94
Registered: ‎11-04-2007

Re: Office 365 or IMAP

Thanks, I'll pass the message on.