IMAP Email Rules

Question

Hello,

Need some help with email rules using IMAP accounts

I just converted from Office 2010 to Hom&Bus 2021.  My emails were all POP3 and now they are all IMAP.

I have 4 email accounts

Need understanding how rules work with IMAP accounts. Can I have the four independent IMAP accounts put mail in one set of folders OR must each IMAP account have their own folders for the rules to work?

additional info:

My default data file is my old .pst file. Does that need to change to one of he .ost files?

Answer 1

You're welcome. If there's anything else, post again.

Answer 2

Thanks Brian for response

I was told my email provider no longer supported POP3, so I switched.

I’ll start the journey of modifying my rules. ugh

I will keep .pst file as the default

Thanks again.

Answer 3

Hi. I'm Brian and I will do my best to help you.

If I were you, I'd leave the old PST as the default data file because that's where your calendar, contacts, and other non-mail folders are and they can be shared between the other account.

If you had wished to, you could have set those other accounts up as POP with the Advanced path in the account configuration wizard. In my opinion, though, IMAP is superior because you can use Outlook desktop or a web browser to access each mailbox and you'll see the same data. Even now, though, you can still convert them to POP by removing them as IMAP and re-adding them as POP.

Yes, IMAP accounts each require an Inbox. You cannot share Inboxes across IMAP accounts because each server contains separate information.

If you want to make a rule that moves messages as they arrive to a common Inbox, like the one in the PST, I think that's possible, but I haven't tried it. I'm sure someone else can advise you on that.