Synchronizing Sent Items

[jstickley]

Okay, I'm new to the whole pocket PC world, so bear with my ignorance.

I've got a Dell Axim X51V, and I've got it set up to synchronize with my desktop. The two devices talk just fine, and I've got inbox and sent items synching great (from desktop to mobile device).

The problem is, my e-mail account is accessible only via POP3. That's fine when all mail comes through the desktop (and is synched to the mobile device using Activesync), but when I'm on the road, I want to be able to use the Axim to send and receive mail, then sync that back to the desktop when I'm back in the office (again, using Activesync). The only way I see to do this is to create a seperate POP3 account on the mobile device, and download e-mail to it when on the road. Works great for received items... the POP3 account doesn't delete items from the e-mail account after downloading them, so they're still there when the desktop downloads them (which eventually allows them to get duplicated in the "Outlook e-mail" inbox on the mobile device). I can always clear out the inbox on the "POP3" account on the mobile device at that point so get rid of the duplicate items.

But what do you do with sent items? Yeah, the sent items on the desktop and in the "Outlook E-mail" account on the mobile device synch fine... but what do I do to get the sent items from the POP3 account on the mobile device to the desktop? If I could move messages from one account to the other on the mobile device, I'd be happy... but I can't seem to do that, nor can I get the POP3 account to retain copies of items I upload from the mobile device to send (which could be downloaded to the desktop as well).

So... what's the solution here (besides not messing with this at all)?

Thanks in advance!

(BTW, apologies if this is posted in the wrong forum, wasn't clear where I should ask this.)

[Wes Salmon]

Unfortunately you're mixing transports with one account which creates this problem. POP itself doesn't have any "Sent items" functionality on the server so the only way to track sent items is via the email client you use to create the outgoing POP message. Activesync on the desktop/device does this for you but only if you're using the Outlook Email account on the device to send mail. Once you create a new POP account on the device, it exists in its own little bubble and is isolated from the other accounts.

[jstickley]

Is there a better way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

It seems as if I should at least be able to move messages from one folder to another on the PDA (between "accounts", not just inbox to sent items or similar moves), but that doesn't seem to be possible. At least that way, I'd be able to "force" the items I compose on it to be pushed to my desktop via activesync.

Is it possible to have the default "Outlook E-mail" account created on the PDA by Activesync also make use of a POP account (have e-mail from / to the POP account delivered to the same inbox / sent items)? That would seem to work to keep things synched between the desktop and PDA also.

Anyway, just a bit frustrated with this, and trying to figure out a way to make everything work the way I envisioned things when I purchased the PDA.

[Wes Salmon]

There really isn't a good way to do what you're trying to do other than CC/BCC'ing your POP account each time you send an email from the device. Then you can setup a rule on your desktop to move those messages to your Sent Items folder which will then sync to the Outlook E-Mail account on the device. Obviously this is less than optimal.

Ultimately the problem is that the standard POP protocol is lacking the ability to understand a "sent items" folder (or folders at all), so it's up to the mail client to collect and archive sent items. That means the sent items folder is client side and unique to whichever client you send the mail from.

I recently upgraded to IMAP from POP for my personal email account because of this. IMAP is much more robust when it comes to understanding outgoing messages and folders in general.

[jstickley]

Well, that's depressing news. I was afraid that might be the case, though.

Just seems that the PDA should have been designed with this capability in mind... that the PDA could serve as a second e-mail client that you'd want to keep synched. I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't just replace my work desktop PC with a laptop.

Just one more option to make this work, I guess.... Are there any add-on programs available that enable movement (either moving or copying / pasting) of e-mails on the PDA from one account to another?