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, Ausatco!
Transferring "folders.dbx" from Master to Slave doesn't copy any documents or data, only the names of folders that may contain data now or later. Remember that what looks like a folder in OE is, in reality, a file on your HD.
Specifically, my "folders.dbx" is 73KB in size and contains the names of over 200 folders. Some of these are sub-folders of other folders. This file never seems to change in size no matter how many other folders exist. (Win 2K and OE6)
F'rinstance, on my PC the "Computing.dbx" file is 260KB big. The "Microsoft.dbx" file is a "child" of this Computing file and is 4.5MB big! The presence and relationship of these files (seen as folders in OE) is recorded in the folders.dbx, so if you move folders around or create new ones they are remembered.
You'll never lose data by copying the folders.dbx file around. (But you could lose data by over-writing a data file with a file of the same name.) But, if the folders.dbx you copy from Master to Slave does not include the name of a file already on the Slave you will no longer see the data Folder in OE but it will still be safe on the Hard Disk.
Getting at it requires some more work in the engine room.
Open OE on the Slave and recreate the missing folder exactly as it was before. Let's say its called Microsoft. Open it (it'll be empty) and shut down OE. With Windows Explorer navigate to the Identity folder. You will now find Microsoft.dbx (which is the old data folder and it will be large). There will also be Microsoft (1).dbx and it'll be small. This is the new data file just created and the file that OE will look for when you open the Microsoft folder.
Make careful note of the exact name and delete it!
Rename the old Microsoft.dbx to be Microsoft (1).dbx.
Open OE and you will find all the e-mails you had in the Microsoft folder before on the slave.
Laborious, isn't it? And only suitable as a recover procedure, not on a regular basis.
Synchronising E-mails (or any databases) will always be a problem unless you are rigorous about which is Master and which is Slave or unless you are happy to tolerate duplicates for manual editing.
I wonder if I answered the question? Why not create a Test identity in OE on both PCs using copies of the files from Main Identity, create a few Test folders and play "what if"? No harm can come as long as you make a few notes as you go along and don't mix up the identities on the two PCs. You wouldn't wan't to delete important stuff now, would you?
Cheers, fob.
