Syncing Mail between two computers

I use both a desktop and a laptop computer and need to sync my work files including my >10GB Mail folder between the two. For the most part I have been able to do this pretty successfully using Chronosync. I have a firewire drive that I plug in and sync the desired files, and this fire wire drive goes back and forth to work. For Mail I backup ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist and ~/Library/Mail.
The problem I'm having with my mail is that every so often the index gets corrupted and then Mail abruptly quits. I'm assuming this is the Envelop Index file stored in the Mail folder, but I'm not totally sure. To rebuild it I have to restart Mail so it can rebuild the Index. That would be fine if that's all it did, but actually it re-imports all my email messages again and now I have duplicate copies. After this happens, I have triplicate and even quadruplicate copies. I'm using a Mail script to remove these duplicates, but this situation is getting out of hand. For example, today it will take ALL DAY to remove the >30,000 duplicates.
Does anyone know the answers to the following:
1. Why does the index get corrupted sometimes but not others?
2. What can I do to keep this file from getting corrupted?
3. Where are all these email messages that Mail re-imports coming from? I have extensive filters to sort incoming messages; I delete junk; I empty my trash on a regular basis. Why can't the index be created based on the existing folders that have the messages sorted into them? WHy are a bazillion messages being reimported?
I am currently using POP servers. I played around this morning with IMAP because my employer provides it, but I don't see how this will solve my problem with my local nested storage of messages on my two computers that I wish to sync. And I think that IMAP is going to give me troubles in a short time because my employer only provides 250 MB of storage space. So storing messages on the server really isn't going to be an option for me.
Any ideas anyone? Right now I'm not syncing to anything mobile other than my laptop, so I don't need any of iphone fixes....

I'll just update to mention that I just noticed that the "Remove Duplicates" script isn't actually removing all the duplicates. I'm down from 3-4 copies of everyting to just two, and now I need a way to get rid of this one extra duplicate. Anyone know of any other ways to do this?

Similar Messages

  • Problem syncing Mail between two computers

    I know this is a well worn topic and I've read the posts on syncing mail between two computers. Overall, I've gotten it to work pretty well. Whenever I move from one computer to another, I copy my ~/Library/Mail folder to my thumbdrive and sync it w/ the same folder on my other computer before I fire up Mail on it.
    But here's the problem: I rebuilt the "sent" mailbox on one of my computers (let's call it computer A). This apparently gives new message numbers to the messages. Things worked great on computer A after that.
    Then I synced the mailbox with my other computer, computer B. On computer B, the change in mailbox numbers apparently was not recognized. Every message in the "sent" folder gave me the message that I needed to go online and download the message. So I rebuilt the "sent" mailbox on computer B. Things then worked great.
    Then I synced back with computer A and the same thing happened. Every message in the sent folder gave me the "download from server message."
    It seems that I'm in some sort of infinite loop. The rebuild on one computer is not recognized by the other computer. Clearly, there is some file somewhere that contains info that's not being conveyed when I sync the ~/Library/Mail folder.
    Any suggestions??

    That is interesting. To that effect I have thrown together this Applescript:
    (CAUTION... do not run this script, experimental only!
    set flashDrive to "FLASH"
    tell application "System Events" to exists process "Mail.app"
    if the result is true then tell application "Mail" to quit
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    do shell script "rm -r /Volumes/" & flashDrive & "/Mail/"
    do shell script "cp -r ~/Library/Mail /Volumes/" & flashDrive & "/"
    do shell script "cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist /Volumes/" & flashDrive & "/Mail/"
    --copy files to userfolder
    do shell script "rm -r ~/Library/Mail"
    do shell script "cp -r /Volumes/" & flashDrive & "/Mail ~/Library/"
    do shell script "cp /Volumes/" & flashDrive & "/Mail/com.apple.mail.plist ~/Library/Preferences/"
    Problem is, I don't know how to tell the script which version of mail data is older or newer. If you know of such a way let me know and I'll script it in, otherwise the user is stuck with manually choosing what to copy to where.
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  • Sync Mail between two computers

    After Leopard upgrade, I switched from Entourage to Mail.app, so I'm new to it.
    I use two Macs and POP accounts. How can I sync Mail.app between two computers in Leopard? The Sync Service of Smart Folders is not enough for me.
    May I use a sync app like Folders Synchrnonizer?
    Thanks
    Stefano

    Both my wife and I have multiple macs and work at home and on the road - we've tried all sorts, and there are 3 approaches that work:
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    I know you think this isn't the ideal solution for you, but it is unbelievably simple and rock solid once you get it working.
    Set your POP mail addresses to forward all mail to your IMAP address (I use .mac which is brilliant, I don't know about Gmail).
    Your mail is server based, so your laptop, desktop, iPhone, webmail from a PC etc. are all always in sync.
    You will still get your mail from your old accounts.
    You can set rules on any of your machines to filter your mail into folders according to which address they were originally sent to.
    HOWEVER the mail you SEND will be FROM your IMAP address, so your clients / friends may get confused if you don't want them to use your IMAP address as your main address.
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    In Mail preferences, highlight your POP account and click on the "Advanced" tab.
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    This way, if you download mail on your Laptop, when you get home that evening, your desktop will download the same mail again, as it has been left on the server.
    It's sort of fake IMAP.
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    Also, if you are away from your laptop too long, you may download and later delete-from-the-server messages on your desktop, leaving your laptop out of date.
    Use Mac Sync to keep your rules, mailboxes and preferences synced up.
    This is the way it's designed to work, so it should work fine.
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    Drag the Mail folder.
    Assuming you're only using one Mac at any one time, you simply move the main mail folder to whichever machine is current.
    Quit Mail on both machines.
    On your target mac, go to youruserfolder/Library and rename the "Mail" folder to something else like "Mail Old". This is just so you have a backup.
    On your source mac, go to youruserfolder/Library and copy that entire folder (not just the mailboxes) either to a drive to transfer to your target mac, or straight to it if you have it networked.
    When you start up mail you will find the messages, folders, mailboxes etc. are the same as they were on your source mac.
    Now you use your target mac (say your laptop) for a while.
    When you are going back to your original source mac (e.g. your desktop), you now repeat the process in the other direction, replacing your desktop's mail folder with your newer laptop's version.
    It's really important you use one mac at a time and swap the folder each time you switch.
    If you rename the previous version before you overwrite it, you know you have a backup if things get out of sync.
    It works really well if you only take the laptop out occassionally, or if you use it exclusively for days at a time (i.e you go away) and you only need to do the transfer every so often.
    Also, it helps if you don't have thousands of emails - if your Mail folder is under half a gig, you can do this quickly using a USB keyring or similar. Any bigger and the transfer can get a bit slow.
    I use option 1, and felt it was worth changing my email address for.
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    But she sometimes gets trouble with her popmail server filling up (she gets lots of video and audio attachments) so if she's going away or not planning to use her desktop in the evenings, she reverts to option 3 and removes messages from the server "right away", updating her desktop's mail folder at the end of the week and just using her laptop until then.
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  • Sync mail on two computers

    i have two laptops and several email accounts - a mixture of POP and IMAP.
    at the moment i use a macbook pro for email, but i'd now like to set up my macbook air to use with the same accounts when i'm travelling.
    is it straightforward to duplicate all my accounts and messages on the MBA or are there any potential conflicts i need to watch out for that might run a risk of messages going missing or not being collected on both computers ?
    any pointers towards how to do this would be much appreciated.

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  • Big trouble syncing edits between two computers

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  • Sync itunes between two computers

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