Setting up 2 machines with 1 2016 outlook acct

[ell]

Hi, I'm pretty much a noob with outlook. My business client has an old laptop with outlook 2013 on it. He just purchased two new laptops with office home & business 2016 on both that he wants everything from the old pc copied to the two and to have outlook sync seamlessly between them. Do I just import the 2013 pst on both new ones and thats it? Do I need to change the server settings? thanks in advance.

 

[nlinecomputers]

What kind of email account? If this is a POP account you can't do that. To do what he wants he needs IMAP or really he needs Exchange.

 

[ell]

What kind of email account? If this is a POP account you can't do that. To do what he wants he needs IMAP or really he needs Exchange.

yeah I'm pretty sure its a pop3

 

[Your PCMD]

yeah I'm pretty sure its a pop3

Thats a no go. I agree with and you should follow @nlinecomputers post above.

 

[ell]

would he be able to if its office 365 he bought?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Actually you CAN import an old PST into a POP account...it's not importing it to the server, it's just importing it into the local "new" PST. Or you can force Outlook to use the old PST instead of importing the old PST into a new virgin (blank) PST. Either way..it's just a local database. Either use it..or import data from it.

The problem is...from now, moving forward...it's difficult to get 2x computers to "sync" inboxes using POP. Yes...there are crappy ways to almost kinda get close to doing that..checkboxes for "leave mail on server for X days/weeks" before deleting...but....it's a crappy system.. POP is a prehistorci e-mail protocol designed back in the days when people had 1x computer/device checking e-mail. It wasn't designed for multiple devices. IMAP became popular later because it works with multiple devices....sorta mirroring mailboxes because it just creates local "copies". POP downloads the mail...like walking to the end of your driveway and reaching into your mailbox and bringing the mail back into your house. Someone follows you..and checks the mailbox..it's empty!

For businesses...and multiple devices looking identical with e-mail..use a proper biz grade mail system...Exchange. O365.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

would he be able to if its office 365 he bought?

Yes..all devices will look exactly the same if he's using O365 for e-mail hosting. (MS Exchange...NOT POP/IMAP residential e-mail)

 

[ell]

Actually you CAN import an old PST into a POP account...it's not importing it to the server, it's just importing it into the local "new" PST. Or you can force Outlook to use the old PST instead of importing the old PST into a new virgin (blank) PST. Either way..it's just a local database. Either use it..or import data from it.

The problem is...from now, moving forward...it's difficult to get 2x computers to "sync" inboxes using POP. Yes...there are crappy ways to almost kinda get close to doing that..checkboxes for "leave mail on server for X days/weeks" before deleting...but....it's a crappy system.. POP is a prehistorci e-mail protocol designed back in the days when people had 1x computer/device checking e-mail. It wasn't designed for multiple devices. IMAP became popular later because it works with multiple devices....sorta mirroring mailboxes because it just creates local "copies". POP downloads the mail...like walking to the end of your driveway and reaching into your mailbox and bringing the mail back into your house. Someone follows you..and checks the mailbox..it's empty!

For businesses...and multiple devices looking identical with e-mail..use a proper biz grade mail system...Exchange. O365.

would he need both and exchange account and 365?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

would he need both and exchange account and 365?

If they have an account with hosted e-mail in Office 365...that IS Exchange..it's hosted Exchange.

Note..just because someone says "I have Office 365"..does not automatically mean they have hosted e-mail.

There are many..many different levels of Office 365. I'll skip the home versions because I don't do residential. But business account wise...there are levels that are "local installs of Microsoft Office only..the online subscription to Word/Excel/etc etc. Both Office Standard, and Office Pro.

And then as we move up into more expensive account types...there are those with e-mail hosting. Some with e-mail hosting ONLY...no Microsoft Office local installs. And there are those with different versions of MS Office local installs.

And there are higher up versions that include more features....and more features...

 

[nlinecomputers]

would he need both and exchange account and 365?

There are multiple kinds of Office 365. Some are just subscription copies of Office. No email. Others have email. But he would have to have his own domain name. If he has john.doe@myisp.com then he can't do this.

 

[ell]

I just called him, I told him without some kind of exchange service it wouldn't work, so I convinced him I'd install outlook on one and use the frontier web email on the second, he doesn't really care about email, guess that was easy thanks guys

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

So Frontier..that's just ISP hosted e-mail. Best/closest he can do is reconfigure Outlook using the IMAP settings that Frontier has in their support section. And e-mail will mostly/sort-of be synced across both devices. Yet other things may not or will not sync properly...such as Contacts, or calendar. Since those are built for MS Exchange to sync. There are some 3rd party tools which can bandaid things "a little bit" and help sync those...but it gets clunky and troublesome to support. You're trying to get semi business grade features to be forced onto a residential grade e-mail system...and it usually don't work well.

 

[ell]

So Frontier..that's just ISP hosted e-mail. Best/closest he can do is reconfigure Outlook using the IMAP settings that Frontier has in their support section. And e-mail will mostly/sort-of be synced across both devices. Yet other things may not or will not sync properly...such as Contacts, or calendar. Since those are built for MS Exchange to sync. There are some 3rd party tools which can bandaid things "a little bit" and help sync those...but it gets clunky and troublesome to support. You're trying to get semi business grade features to be forced onto a residential grade e-mail system...and it usually don't work well.

ok, I'll try using the imap settings, thanks!

 

[nlinecomputers]

ok, I'll try using the imap settings, thanks!

Yes you will need to do that or he will complain about missing mail when he tried to view it in webmail. POP pulls email off the server. So it isn't there to view in a webmail browser session.