Accessing one mail database across multiple macs

I am not too familiar with the mac yet, I'm getting there, but I have an issue I can't figure out...
I convinced my parents a long time ago to get macs, imac and macbook pro, and both have windows on them, and that's what they're using. I have imposed a deadline for them of tomorrow to finally make the switch, and remove the windows installation. They're using Outlook for their email, and I want to know if it's possible to
1) Import outlook pst into Mail without going through entourage first
2) Access the mail database on the imac on the macbook pro.
Thanks in advance...

ZooCrewMan,
I may be wrong about their support of IMAP. I just checked the Earthlink support site myself, and I cannot find anything about it.
Mail does not store in a "database," but rather stores each message as a separate text file. Attachments are stored separately, but linked to the associated message. This is handy for several reasons. One, it avoids the problems associated with monolithic database files. It also aids in the backup process, making each incremental backup that much smaller. Finally, it is instrumental in the ability to index and search all messages by content.
It is not possible to "point" Mail on one machine to the stored emails on another, at least not without serious advanced work and headaches, and it is not necessary. By telling Mail on each machine to use the same address, servers, etc., but to leave the messages on the server until they are either moved to a local email folder or deleted, the results you need will be achieved. In this configuration, Mail essentially works as an IMAP client, only using the POP protocol. When Mail is launched, it downloads all new messages from the server, but leaves them there. The server is told to remove the message only when that message is deleted and/or moved to another local folder.
When Mail is launched on the second machine, the same new messages are there on the server for downloading, minus those already deleted by the first machine. The only thing that is not duplicated on both is "sent" mail.
Scott

Similar Messages

  • Using one Itunes database across two macs

    Using one itunes database across two macs
    I currently run a 2010 MBP (500gb hd) at home and on the road and a 2013 Imac (1Tb hd) at work. I have a large lossless itunes library of about 300gb and would like to increase the library further.
    My MBP started running slowly and I realised that my iTunes library was choking the whole computer. I started to explore ways to store my library on a remote disk and bought a G drive 1Tb portable drive.
    My efforts to carry out the transfer were only partially successful with most of my library transferring but a significant number of tracks displaying the ! sign which means they couldn't be located.
    I have also got an Imac at work and what I had hoped to achieve was to have my iTunes database on the 1tb portable drive and use the portable disk on both my MBP and iMac.
    Our technical support company are dubious about whether this will work because the local specific itunes library data on each machine will differ and each machine will not operate correctly with the underlying data on the portable drive.
    I am not very technical and I am finding it difficult to follow the various posts on this board and elsewhere. Many seem to comment on splitting their library across multiple disks but I cant really seem to get to the bottom of storing my library on one disk and using it across multiple computers.
    Is what I am trying to achieve practical?
    If it is, can someone point me to an article/post please? Or alternatively could someone explain how I might achieve my goal.
    Thanks in a advance for your help.

    Here you go.
    http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/ultranewb--how-to-move-your-itunes-library -to-an-external-drive-238296.php

  • Sharing one Mail database on 2 Mac's?

    Can I connect 2 Mac's via Airport or Firewire and process e-mails on either one in Mail (or Entourage) while keeping the mails on both machines synchronized?
    iMac G5 with OS 10.4.3 and iCube with OS 10.2.8.

    I have a somewhat similiar problem. My main computer is a PB G4 running 10.3.9. as I travel quite a bit. When I am home however I use a desktop G4 also running 10.3.9. I usually run the PB as a Firewire hard drive so that I can access files etc. When I was using Eudora I just created some alises in the appropriate folders that would point to the correct files on the PB. I have tried this with Mail but can't seem to get the program to recognize the permanent files on my PB. It wants me to set up new accounts. I made aliases of the preference file and mail library folder. Am I missing something or is this not possible with Mail?
    Thanks, Taylor
    PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

  • Is there a way to default send from one mail account across multiple mail accounts?

    I have a user who has her own Exchange mailbox account. I have added two separate Exchange mail accounts. I want to be able to force her (even if she is in one of the other two mail accounts) to send from her own Exchange account. I know you can manually change it every time, but is there a way to force it automatically? Thanks.

    Nope. There is no universal mailbox on the iPhone.

  • Syncing safari tabs across multiple macs

    I have a Mac Mini as my primary mac and a MBA as my "leisure" Mac. I thought with syncing that all my Safari tabs would be the same in both, like is done well with Mail, Contacts, and Calendar. However, I've just changed my Mini Safari tabs, and I went to my MBA expecting to see the same framework, and it has not updated. What do I need to do to sync across multiple macs?

    The tabs are not synced, just the bookmarks. Tabs are not data or content, just a window frame for different URLs.

  • Sharing one iTunes library across multiple accounts on the same Mac

    Hello, I've poked around at some of the posts dealing with sharing one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac but it seems like this can only be done if the libary is moved to a shared folder. I realize this can be done but I was trying to share it the way it is described in a post on Apple support (See link below.). That post seemed to imply that you don't have to move the library from its original location (owned by account A, e.g.), rather just make a couple preference changes in the accounts, use fast user switching and voila. That doesn't seem to work. So my question is this: Is the only way to share one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac to move it to a shared folder? I'm running 10.4.8 on an Intel iMac. Thanks in advance!
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

    After reading this and several other related threads, I am becoming thoroughly confused about all of this. I have a situation similar to the one that pokerpal described in the post dated January 7 at 8:06 pm, except that the music files on my system are located on an external hard drive. Everything else is pretty much the same though - I am the admin user (and the main iTunes user and maintainer) and my girlfriend is a standard user who has no music in her own iTunes library. She can see and listen to and make playlists from and sync her iPod with the music in this library from her account, and I can do the same thing, independent of her, from my account. And if I make a change to information within a song, she doesn't see it, and vice versa, and I understand that. What I don't understand is why when I add a song or an album to the music files by importing a CD or downloading something from the iTunes Music Store, she has no way of knowing that unless I tell her, and then she can add it to her library by using the "Add to Library" function. Is there no way of automatically updating her library files to add the new song(s)? We have almost 15,000 songs and videos in that library, and I don't even want to think about what might have to happen if the answer to my question is "no." Interestingly enough, if I put an update to a Word document in the same exact location (on the hard drive), we can update that and pass it back and forth all day - why is that such a difficult task for iTunes to accomplish?
    Sorry I went on so long, but this has been building up for some time, and none of the solutions I've read about here have really been of any help, so I'm a bit frustrated and, as I said at the beginning, confused.
    iMac G5, MacBook   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

  • No Longer Possible to Access iCloud Mail on Third Party Mac

    Something has changed recently. It is no longer possible to access iCloud mail on a third party mac via web browser
    This afternoon, I tried to do so on my daughter's iMac - and the system wanted me to set up iCloud rather than letting me access Mail (or any other iCloud services for that matter) instead. Tried different browsers, change of login account on the computer. All to no avail. Have to set up iCloud on the computer. Which means either logging my daughter out, or creating a whole new identity for the purpose. This entirely defeats the notion of the simple webmail interface - and indeed makes Pages, Calendar, etc inaccessible unless on your own computer, or one that you have used to set up an iCloud account. Not something that you want to do in an internet cafe or an airport lounge.
    Two sets of Chat Support sessions later, with the problem being hinted to be probably due to "my daughter's computer (!!???)", no satisfaction
    I am now in the airport, trying to still access my iCloud mail through a web browser. Same nonsense about setting up iCloud before I can access my iCloud mail via the web through a browser.
    Apple, this was one of the advantages of iCloud that I, as a regular traveller, have found useful in the past. Today I have wasted well over an hour on something that is clearly an error in the logic of how people will be using iCloud - possibly a "feature" of Mavericks?
    Please bring back simple and straightforward access to iCloud mail via web browser, so that I can once again access my mail from any third party computer.
    Thanks
    Nic

    Excellent, well done. I have to say that talktalk were useless, they repeatedly sent me instructions for setting up an emil account and did not seem able to understand that it was the login that would not work. Thank you.

  • One Apple ID on multiple macs to use for iCloud?

    We have one "business" apple ID for multiple macs in my office for ease of purchasing. Now, we'd like to use the same apple ID to sync our data via iCloud. I was wondering if it would create conflict if we only used one apple ID to sync multiple macs and would it create conflict with iCloud? 

    I don't believe there would be any conflicts. I'm not sure whether you intended sharing your contacts or some of your contacts between you but you can do either (indeed you don't need to share contacts if you don't want).
    You might also take a look at this User Tip, to ensure you understand the differences between the different accounts in Address Book

  • Best way to have multiple emails across multiple Macs with Mail?

    So I have 2 Macs, and 3 email accounts (GMail, GoDaddy, and my university)...and I have all accounts set up on both machines, but I only receive email on one of them...if both are open, they randomly go to one, and if only one is open, it goes to the open one. How can I set it up so that all emails go to BOTH computers?
    Thanks!

    Scott,
    Looking for some support/advice on a multiple-computers/same account issue.
    One group that I do some IT for have about 12 staff members, each armed with a laptop (Mac of course). Their mail accounts are set up as POP (as recommended by our hosting company ((paetec)) due to the volume of messages). Everyone likes POP.
    There are three administrative assistants at the main office who monitor/check the POP accounts for the staff who are off-site with laptops. So "joe" is checking/sending e-mail on the road from his MacBook, and his assistant is also checking/saving "Joe's" mail back at the office. The staff want it set up this way and depend on this double checking system (no sales/customer inquiry is ever missed)
    Is this a recommended use of Mail.app? Anyone else use a similar set up?
    So, let's say the admin staff have about 10 to 12 accounts on their iMacs, constantly fetching the same mail the POP users may or may not have read yet.
    A big problem I have is a bulk of junk/spam/old messages that are piling up on the server. I don't know why their are so many (in the GBs), because I try to keep everyone's Mailbox Advanced settings the same (download to the local machine, remove from server, after so long). But it is not working.
    The messages on the server pile up and I don't know why. Without having everyone's laptops in front of me, or checking all their settings through Remote Desktop, I'm not sure where the problem is?
    Another problem is the occasional re-download of duplicate messages from the server to a specific POP account. What triggers Mail.app to do that? A date, a file size, a bug? That is when the tons of un-removed mail from the server really ties up/slows down the admin assistant's mail.app.
    (which I thought was removed!)
    Any advice/thoughts welcome.
    Thanks
    bc

  • Sharing one library across multiple Macs on a Home Network

    Firstly apologies if this has already been dealt with. I have searched but cannot find exactly what I am looking for.
    My set up is as follows. I have a Mac Book. I run iTunes and my iTunes database is currently on my Mac Book. The actual music and video collection is all on a Home Server that is connected by cable to an Airport Extreme Base Station.
    When I log into my Mac, the server is auto-mounted, and my iTunes library points to the folder on the server.
    So here are my issues:
    1. I am so impressed with Macs that I am about to purchase a Mac desktop. Is there a simple way that a non-technical person can understand, to ensure that I see the same iTunes library whether I use the laptop in the garden or the desktop in the study? I do not want to have to keep updating two separate libraries with changes (that's what the computer should do) rather I want the IT to do it automatically for me.
    2. I also share my entire music collection with my partner. Now sometimes one of us buys a CD we both like from the iTunes Store. If my partner does this and does not tell me, we end up with different libraries that do not match. Is there any way around this problem?
    Looking forwrd to any help you can offer.
    All the best
    Christian
    London, England

    there is no problem doing that on a windows machine on a windows machine you just press shift and restore in itunes and point to the downlloaded firmware file

  • Best practices for sharing iPhoto libraries across multiple Macs

    I have a pair of iMacs running 10.6.x. and iPhoto 11 connected via Ethernet to an Airport Extreme. I am looking for a way to share my iPhoto library between the two Macs.
    I found an Apple Support note on the topic (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198) which states that a disk image is a supported location for a shared iPhoto library (with limitations acceptable to me) and it strikes me that this would be a way of hosting a shared iPhoto library onto a NAS device.
    Am I missing a simpler solution or, more importantly, am I missing any blindingly obvious caveats? I'd love to hear from anybody who has tried this (successfully or otherwise) or anybody who has a better idea. I haven't bought a NAS device yet, so I'm open to alternative suggestions.
    Specific requirements:
    Members of my family use either one of a pair of iMacs.
    The only user who edits the iPhoto library is me and I only need read/write access from one machine.
    iPhoto library access limited to one user at a time is acceptable and practical in my case.

    Easiest:
    If the other users only get to see the Library then just use iPhoto Sharing.
    Enable sharing in the iPhoto Preferences on the Host machine, then go to the other macgine and in the same location enable 'Look for Shared Libraries'
    Other forms of sharing will give the users read/write access to the Library.
    A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries. 
    Regards
    TD

  • One itunes library with multiple macs (Wireless external HD)

    I just bought 3 macs and a 6TB External network drive. I would like to have all of my media on the external drive and have all 3 computers with the ability to add/access content. Can this work? I need the iTunes libraries to update when content is added from any of the three computers.
    Thank you in advance

    Don't just put the media on the external, put the whole iTunes folder, media and all, on the external.  That way any Mac getting access to the external will use the same library (but only one can do so at a time).  For each computer start iTunes and immediately hold down the option key to enable selection of the library location.

  • One iTunes library on multiple Macs and remote accsess

    Dear all,
    I really need an advise. I am now having an idea to transfer all my iTunes to NAS server - I am thinking about synology 8TB ( is it a good choice?).
    Recetly I have red here that I can SOMEHOW tranfer iTunes folder to NAS server and then access it from my MAcbook Air iTunes, my iMac iTunes etc? Is that correct? How can I excatly do this?
    And now my MAIN question - if the first condition can be done - can I access my NAS iTunes folder at home from work and then using my whole iTunes library? (I think that if i can be able to connect remotly the NAS server to my Air i can be also be able to using the NAS iTunes folder - library - as I would do at home but I am not sure)
    Please - give me an advise, this is going to be very complex for me. :-)
    Thank you and have a great day
    Steve

    Don't just put the media on the external, put the whole iTunes folder, media and all, on the external.  That way any Mac getting access to the external will use the same library (but only one can do so at a time).  For each computer start iTunes and immediately hold down the option key to enable selection of the library location.

  • Best practice for SSH access by a user across multiple Xserves?

    Hello.
    I have 3 Xserves and a Mac Mini server I'm working with and I need SSH access to all these machines. I have given myself access via SSH in Server Admin access settings and since all 4 servers are connected to an OD Master (one of the three Xserves), I'm able to SSH into all 4 machines using my username/password combination.
    What I'm unsure of though is, how do I deal with my home folder when accessing these machines? For example, currently, when I SSH into any of the machines, I get an error saying...
    CFPreferences: user home directory at /99 is unavailable. User domains will be volatile.
    It then asks for my password, which I enter, and then I get the following error...
    Could not chdir to home directory 99: No such file or directory
    And then it just dumps me into the root of the server I'm trying to connect to.
    How should I go about dealing with this? Since I don't have a local home directory on any of these servers, it has no where to put me. I tried enabling/using a network home folder, but I end up with the same issue. Since the volume/location designated as my home folder isn't mounted on the servers I'm trying to connect to (and since logging in via SSH doesn't auto-mount the share point like AFP would if I was actually logging into OS X via the GUI), it again says it can't find my home directory and dumps me into the root the server I've logged in to.
    If anyone could lend some advice on how to properly set this up, it would be much appreciated!
    Thanks,
    Kristin.

    Should logging in via SSH auto-mount the share point?
    Yes, of course, but only if you've set it up that way.
    What you need to do is designate one of the servers as being the repository of home directories. You do this by simply setting up an AFP sharepoint on that server (using Server Admin) and checking the 'enable user home directories' option.
    Then you go to Workgroup Manager and select your account. Under the Home tab you'll see the options for where this user's home directory is. It'll currently say 'None' (indicating a local home directory on each server). Just change this to select the recently-created sharepoint from above.
    Save the account and you're done. When you login each server will recognize that your home directory is stored on a network volume and will automatically mount that home directory for you.

  • Sharing folders across multiple Macs

    Other than an old post about now-defunct iDisk, I don't seem to easily find an answer to this on the boards so am posting my own question.
    I have two Macs – an old MBPro and a newer iMac. The laptop cannot run Mountain Lion as it's too old; both devices now run Lion. Now I want to solve document sharing issues so I don't have to manually manage synchonization.
    I want the content of certain folders on my iMac to be available to both devices (and preferable my iPad/iPhone as well) anywhere I go and have Internet access. Lacking Internet access, I want the last synced version available, and when I'm online again, any changes will be synced back to the cloud.
    I have iCloud service (25GB for $40/year) as well as 100GB Dropbox subscription that costs me $120/year.  I don't think I need both(?)  Using more iCloud storage means that I'd pay $100/year for just 50GB.  So it seems Dropbox is the better deal at least space-for-money-wise.  The initial folder I want to share is about 7GB but I can see this growing as I sync more things.
    I cannot see using simple file sharing from the iMac as it isn't always running; that is, it might be asleep or even powered off.
    Anyone willing to share the "best practice" approach to getting this done in a secure way that doesn't have me worrying about some third-party accessing all the documents?
    Thank you in advance.

    You can use Sugarsync for this, it is free (up to 5GB) and inexpensive if 5G is insufficient.
    Once installed you can choose any combination of folders from one machine for replication on another. Changes made on either machine are reflected on the other. It will work on Macs, PC's IOS and Android devices.

Maybe you are looking for

  • How do I restore my Mac from an external recovery drive?

    I cannot repair my main HD and is showing as gray in Disk utility. I have installed the OS and backed up my data on an external hard drive. How do I reformat my HD using disk utility and restore the OS and my files from the external HD?

  • How do I split a voice memo into two memos?

    I recorded two back to back meetngs on one voice memo. Now I need to share that memo with two different groups. Is there a way I can split the voice memo so that I have a voice recording of each meeting?

  • Mac OS X Mavericks install

    I downloaded Mac OS X Mavericks but the install failed and it corrupted my current OS 7. I could restart or repair my OS 7.8. How do I resolve this problem? Help pls. Thanks  Red

  • More than 7 days?

    Is there a way of setting up future recordings more than 7 days ahead (other than 'record entire series'), for example if you're going on holiday for 2 or three weeks?

  • Collab Subscription Emails: How to detect HTML enabled cell phone?

    We have found tremendous adoption success with using the "Subscribe Others" feature in collab. Naturally this concept rubs many folks the wrong way because often the end users don't know why they are getting these emails or what they are expected to