IMAP - Entourage Folder Issues

[bet]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: imap

Hi -

work in a small company where we have recently switched over from POP to IMAP with a self signed ssl certificate. we all use Entourage 2004 / 2008. there have been a couple of problems with some of the email accounts - all the sent messages are missing from the sent folder, chunks of the inbox mail will randomly move to the deleted items, and some of my colleagues are getting things coming through to their old pop inboxes.

the issues are confined to my us colleagues and boss - my bosses email is picked up by him, myself and one of my us colleagues - so my initial thought was that there was an issue with all of us trying to pick up one set of mail...but this doesnt explain why the other accounts are going haywire...

the solutions ive found, tried and failed with are:

deleting and recreating the accounts from scratch
checking the rules and schedules
refreshing the mail list(s)
repairing the message lists(s)

any help greatly appreciated!

All the best,

Lizi

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

the issues are confined to my us colleagues and boss - my bosses
email is picked up by him, myself and one of my us colleagues - so my
initial thought was that there was an issue with all of us trying to
pick up one set of mail...but this doesnt explain why the other
accounts are going haywire...

You're allowing multiple users access to the same account? While this is
certainly possible with IMAP, what one user does will affect everyone
else. One user deletes a message and the message is deleted from
everyone's setup.

Only one person with wonky rules or unusual work habits is needed to
cause confusion for the rest.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[bet]

yes, three users access the one account. i have checked everyones settings and rules and they all match up as they should, nothing is directing anything anywhere...noone has anything set up to delete any messages from the server so everything should be there...

we are also running pop on this server which runs pretty much ok apart from the inbox direction.

there were a few problems that were resolved with a couple of dns alterations, but we are still experiencing some issues that seem to be centred around entourage. there are two main problems -

the first - items directed to the junk email folder by the server are sporadically shifted/deleted, and the sent items will not retain in the sent items folder longer than a day.

the second is incoming mail direction, both me and my colleague receive both ours and our bosses email. all mail for my boss that my US counterpart receives is directed to her inbox. this has not been rectified by any rules or routings. i am experiencing the same issue with my pop account, but not the imap (im not so fussy about this, it is the imap problems i would rather solve)...

any ideas?

 

[Diane Ross]

Make sure no POP accounts are accessing the email account.

There are 3 different kind of rules in Entourage:

Mailing List Manager (MLM)
Junk Mail Filter
Rules (custom rules you create)

They run in the order listed above. The custom rules also run in the order
they are listed. (top runs first)

1) POP Rules act on a message ONLY when it first arrives in the Inbox (On My
Computer), NOT when it arrives in any other folder. Once it's moved to
another folder it won't be seen by rules.

2) IMAP Rules are meant to act on a message ONLY when it first arrives in
the IMAP INBOX, not when moved to another IMAP folder.

3) Exchange Rules act on a message ONLY when it first arrives in the
Exchange Inbox.

Each type of account has it's own rules. Click on the correct tab to check
your rules. (Mail (POP), Mail (IMAP) Mal (Windows Live Hotmail) Mail
(Exchange), News, Outgoing)

Messages that are going to the wrong folder could be the result of a MLM
rule that is running prior to your other rules. It's very easy to set up a
MLM rule by accident, when you are marking a message as 'not junk'. The
wording of that dialog is ambiguous to say the least. Check if there is an
MLM entry (look for MLM entries under the tools menu) with the incorrect
destination folder as the target folder. Mailing List Manager rules run
before your other rules.

Hope this helps!

 

[bet]

hi diane -

many thanks for this - ive had a small check and unfortunately there are no mlm rules in place that could affect things in this way...there are two problems, some messages are being routed to the incorrect imap folder and then will not retain in the entourage folder...

do you know of any problems with imap accounts being accessed by more than one user? as i said, there are three people accessing this account, one as the main user and two as secondary accounts for secretarial purposes. any settings relating to deletion of messages (purge deleted items etc) are disabled.

here is pretty much what is happening:

most sent mail is being delivered to the imap inbox folder, however some sent mail is being correctly stored in the imap sent items folder, but will then clear itself, either of all or a large portion of the days sent email.

junk email is going to the imap junk folder, but again clears itself sporadically. some messages from white-listed contacts is being sent here and then moves.

the inbox folder will receive the majority of messages, but will hide certain emails, there doesnt seem to be a pattern to the ones it moves, just random chunks of mail will go from the inbox.

some inbox items will be moved to deleted folders without user interaction and then clear from the folder before they can be put back to their rightful place.

all the best, L.

 

[Diane Ross]

do you know of any problems with imap accounts being accessed by more than one
user? as i said, there are three people accessing this account, one as the
main user and two as secondary accounts for secretarial purposes. any settings
relating to deletion of messages (purge deleted items etc) are disabled.

Everyone would need to check their rules. If one person is moving the
messages, everyone would see the same results.

Only a rule would move a message. Server settings would also need to be
checked.