One account, yet two mailboxes

[John Brewer]

This is probably a server-side issue with Exchange, but I wanted to share it
in this forum in case others are seeing similar issues and thinking they are
out of their minds...


I run both Windows XP and Mac 10.4.11 for my corporate work ­ the former is
forced upon me, the latter is my choice. I haven¹t logged onto the IBM for
weeks. Last week I started having real problems with Entourage over
Outlook Webmail Access (couldn¹t make a connection for two hours), so I
decided to fire up the IBM and use Outlook to get to email.

When I did so, I noticed that the Mac Entourage client is seeing some emails
that the IBM isn¹t seeing in Outlook. And the same emails aren¹t showing up
over Webmail viewed using a browser. All of the emails I can see in Outlook
or in my Inbox on Webmail browser access can be seen on the Mac client.
However, there are some emails ­ about 75% of my daily traffic ­ that can be
seen on the Mac client but can¹t be seen on Outlook or a Webmail access via
browser.

Another interesting point: the Mac Entourage client (different from
Outlook) maintains a separate Inbox (under ³Folders on My Computer²) from
the account-defined mailbox (I call it ³SiGe² on my client). About 1 March
08, this separate Inbox started getting the majority of my email traffic
instead of the SiGe mailbox. Previous to this date, the SiGe inbox got all
my email traffic that cleared the SPAM filters.

Here¹s a critical point: the Entourage SiGe mailbox email list perfectly
matches the Outlook Inbox email list (and the Webmail Inbox email list as
well). That means that the majority of my email traffic is being diverted
by the server to a mailbox location that can¹t be seen in Outlook. All
other folders ­ SPAM, sent mail, deleted mail, all offline mail folders ­
are identical over Entourage and Outlook.

I¹ve used the Mac for OWA to email for two years, the account is defined for
Exchange Server access. Previous to 1 Mar 08, all of my mail went to the
Entourage SiGe mailbox; that is, the Entourage SiGe mailbox email list
matched the Outlook Inbox email list. Across the company, we¹ve had
XP-based Outlook users suddenly getting the majority of their
internally-generated emails in their SPAM filter mailbox. This started the
same time that my Inbox began getting most of my mail on Entourage (instead
of ³SiGe²).

Any ideas as to what¹s going on here? Our corporate IT is stunned, they have
been on this problem for quite a while with no results.


Thanks,
jbrewer

John Brewer

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Another interesting point: the Mac Entourage client (different from
Outlook) maintains a separate Inbox (under "Folders on My Computer") from
the account-defined mailbox (I call it "SiGe" on my client). About 1 March
08, this separate Inbox started getting the majority of my email traffic
instead of the SiGe mailbox. Previous to this date, the SiGe inbox got all
my email traffic that cleared the SPAM filters.

I suspect I know the root of your problem.
Excahnge accounts are indeed presented separately from On My COmputer.
I actually think it's a good thing since e-mails remain on the server
and are not really on your computer (just cached there for quick and
offline access).

Entourage 2004 has a nasty tendency to mess up rules when you rebuild
the database.
Check all your rules and the mailing list manager to make sure none of
them is sending e-mails in the folder "On my computer"

Corentin

 

[John Brewer]

I suspect I know the root of your problem.
Excahnge accounts are indeed presented separately from On My COmputer.
I actually think it's a good thing since e-mails remain on the server
and are not really on your computer (just cached there for quick and
offline access).

Entourage 2004 has a nasty tendency to mess up rules when you rebuild
the database.
Check all your rules and the mailing list manager to make sure none of
them is sending e-mails in the folder "On my computer"

Corentin

Corentin:

Thanks for the response. Checked all the rules and the mailing list
manager, no issues there.

The most interesting point of this whole issue is how "On My Computer" inbox
sees mail on the server that Outlook on the Windows XP platform cannot see.
Any ideas what could be driving that on the server side? I don't think
that's a client-side issue. Is there any way for me to see how "On My
Computer" Inbox and "SiGe" Inbox are configured?


jbrewer

 

[William Smith]

Thanks for the response. Checked all the rules and the mailing list
manager, no issues there.

The most interesting point of this whole issue is how "On My Computer" inbox
sees mail on the server that Outlook on the Windows XP platform cannot see.
Any ideas what could be driving that on the server side? I don't think
that's a client-side issue. Is there any way for me to see how "On My
Computer" Inbox and "SiGe" Inbox are configured?

The Inbox "On My Computer" has no knowledge of Exchange and Exchange has
no knowledge of your Inbox under "On My Computer".

The only things that can put Exchange account messages into the Inbox
"On My Computer" are you (by physically dragging and dropping messages)
or rules.

Please double-check Tools --> Mailing List Manager. These rules are easy
to accidentally create in Entourage 2004 if you're marking a message in
Exchange as not Junk. The default is to move messages defined in the MLM
rule to the Inbox "On My Computer".

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[John Brewer, Jr.]

Thanks William. What you said is what I understood as well...yet there are
no rules in Tools ->Mailing List Manager.

Even more interesting is that our IT folks found some issues with the
Virtual Server through which I gain Exchange access. When they recreated
the Virtual Server, all the problems went away; all email began appearing in
my "SiGe" mailbox, none in the "On My Computer" inbox.


jbrewer

 

[William Smith]

Thanks William. What you said is what I understood as well...yet there are
no rules in Tools ->Mailing List Manager.

Even more interesting is that our IT folks found some issues with the
Virtual Server through which I gain Exchange access. When they recreated
the Virtual Server, all the problems went away; all email began appearing in
my "SiGe" mailbox, none in the "On My Computer" inbox.

Innnntersting...

Glad you at least found the problem.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>