How does Outlook determine if a POP3 message is downloaded or not?

[Vinil]

Hi,
I use Outlook2007 with POP3 and I use the option "Leave a copy of
message on the server."
Why outlook? Calendaring support. No other tool comes close (or I am
not aware)
Why POP3? mail server is not exchange
Why "Leave a copy of message on Server"? 1. Server's backed up, 2. Can
read mails while on the move

However, there's one problem.
When I move machines and open the PST on the new machine, outlook
fetches the entire inbox creating a duplicate of the message within
the PST.

My problem is not this behaviour because I understand that Outlook
does not have the "state" information on the new machine to realise
that it needs to download only say message 2201 onwards and not the
entire inbox again.

So my question is: How does Outlook configured in POP3 mode and "leave
messages on the server" mode realize that it has to download only the
latest messages? Otherwise, every time outlook opens a POP3 mailbox,
shouldn't it be fetching all the messages in the mailbox (something
that this hotfix on Outlook 2003 solves: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=885870)

I am guessing that there is some state information persisted on the
disk. And, I am thinking if I store this file along with my PST, the
new machine where I move my PST to, would not download the entire set
of messages in my mailbox.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Vinil

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

So my question is: How does Outlook configured in POP3 mode and "leave
messages on the server" mode realize that it has to download only the
latest messages? Otherwise, every time outlook opens a POP3 mailbox,
shouldn't it be fetching all the messages in the mailbox (something
that this hotfix on Outlook 2003 solves:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=885870)

I am guessing that there is some state information persisted on the
disk. And, I am thinking if I store this file along with my PST, the
new machine where I move my PST to, would not download the entire set
of messages in my mailbox.

There is no way to configure one Outlook to be able to detect which messages
another Outlook has downloaded. The information that keeps track of this is
the UID and the values are unique to a server/client pair. I believe that
Outlook 2002 and earlier kept the UID information in the mail profile in the
registry. I believe Outlook 2003 and 2007 keep it in a hidden folder in the
PST, but that it is tagged with information unique to the downloading client
so that if you move the PST to another Outlook it can't see the information.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Moving the file that saves the download state will not help - its tied to
the computers profile and the computer.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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