IMAP Instability & Performance

[ctc]

I have a new computer with an i7 processor, 6gb Ram with a new install of
Vista 64, office 2007, cloudmark spamnet, etc. on a stand alone work station.
MS update and all other updates are up-to-date.

In anticipation of obtaining an iphone I had my email service provider
change my pop account to an imap. I then created a new imap email account in
outlook using my existing email address.

Ihave begun to copy all of my old email (1 month at a time) from the pop
email account inbox and sent items folders to the corresponding folders in my
imap email account. Although this process is slow, it is not unexpected due
to the enormous amount of data being synched with the email server.

Unfortunately when outlook checks for new mail it sometimes can take upto a
minute while outlook is "not responding". Additionally outlook can
temporarily freeze when switching folders and display "not responding" for a
minute or so.

Outlook has now crashed twice in the last 2 days, it has never crashed before.

IE sometimes temporarily freezes, dragon naturally speaking crashed
yesterday taking my profile with it, and cloudmark spamnet copies all spam 9x
as it moves it to the IMAP spam folder.

Has anyone else experienced such changes/problems when adding an IMAP account?

I am seriously considering changing back to a pop email account and trying
mobileme or some other such option.

Any ideas?, advice?

 

[DL]

Why do you find it neccessary to copy old data from one set of Personal
Folders to another?

 

[ctc]

So that when I get my smart phone up and running it has the email history
that I need in the field.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Has anyone else experienced such changes/problems when adding an IMAP
account?

I don't find Outook to be a robust IMAP client, particularly if the IMAP
server interprets the IMAP commands in slightly different ways than Outlook
does. I've got a private setup like that and it leads to problems. One thing
that may improve its stability, however, is to increase the server timeout
value on the Advanced tab of the account properties. Microsoft hasn't done a
good job of documenting the underlying IMAP-related settings and their
effects.

 

[Tom Willett]

: :
: > Has anyone else experienced such changes/problems when adding an IMAP
: > account?
:
: I don't find Outook to be a robust IMAP client, particularly if the IMAP
: server interprets the IMAP commands in slightly different ways than
Outlook
: does. I've got a private setup like that and it leads to problems. One
thing
: that may improve its stability, however, is to increase the server timeout
: value on the Advanced tab of the account properties. Microsoft hasn't
done a
: good job of documenting the underlying IMAP-related settings and their
: effects.
: --
: Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

I agree with you, Brian. After converting to IMAP, we had nothing but
issues with those employees using Outlook, and have since moved them to
Thunderbird.

 

[ctc]

Thank you both for your input.

When opening Outlook the other day it decided to re-download all of the
3000+ items in my inbox in spite of the setting which forces Outlook to
"automatically download headers each time you check e-mail". I mistakenly
thought that setting would ensure that all of my e-mail history would be
contained in my IMAP PST file on my computer providing me with the backup
security I require. It was two hours of nailbiting to see if all of my inbox
mail history would be there. Why?

IMAP in Outlook 2007 has proven to be terribly unstable, unreliable, and
therefore unusable. If I have to dump Outlook for something like Thunderbird,
perhaps it's time to take another look at "open office "for my wordprocessing
and spreadsheet needs.

Short of making this change can anyone recommend a reliable and robust way
of synchronizing my pop mail account with an iPhone?

 

[ctc]

It appears that the instability and performance issues that I was having with
IMAP in Outlook 2007 was due in part to the following:

Cloudmark Spamnet is not certified to work with Vista 64.

Norton Internet security 2009 has some known issues with IMAP stability.

Norton Internet security 2010 seems to work very well with IMAP.

Moving the e-mail contents of my inbox and sent items folders to temporary
folders, and then back again have solved all of my UID error message problems.

IMAP e-mail with Outlook 2007 and Vista 64 now appears to be working well.

Thank you both for your input.

When opening Outlook the other day it decided to re-download all of the
3000+ items in my inbox in spite of the setting which forces Outlook to
"automatically download headers each time you check e-mail". I mistakenly
thought that setting would ensure that all of my e-mail history would be
contained in my IMAP PST file on my computer providing me with the backup
security I require. It was two hours of nailbiting to see if all of my inbox
mail history would be there. Why?

IMAP in Outlook 2007 has proven to be terribly unstable, unreliable, and
therefore unusable. If I have to dump Outlook for something like Thunderbird,
perhaps it's time to take another look at "open office "for my wordprocessing
and spreadsheet needs.

Short of making this change can anyone recommend a reliable and robust way
of synchronizing my pop mail account with an iPhone?

: :
: > Has anyone else experienced such changes/problems when adding an IMAP
: > account?
:
: I don't find Outook to be a robust IMAP client, particularly if the IMAP
: server interprets the IMAP commands in slightly different ways than
Outlook
: does. I've got a private setup like that and it leads to problems. One
thing
: that may improve its stability, however, is to increase the server timeout
: value on the Advanced tab of the account properties. Microsoft hasn't
done a
: good job of documenting the underlying IMAP-related settings and their
: effects.
: --
: Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

I agree with you, Brian. After converting to IMAP, we had nothing but
issues with those employees using Outlook, and have since moved them to
Thunderbird.