Windows Live Mail/BT Internet problem

[Tableview]

An annoying problem has manifested itself.

I have been travelling for the last 10 days and three days ago found that when using my laptop via wifi networks, Windows Live Mail downloads everything in the inboxes on all 3 of my accounts, including stuff it has previously downloaded going to back to when Moses was in the Boyscouts. It is annoying.

I first I thought this might be a quirk of the wifi network I was using but it has happened on three different ones in three different countries and also on my home network.

I thought I would wait until I got home and seewhat happens with my home PC. Now home, I found that my PC at home, also using WLmail does not reproduce the problem, it is therefore something specific to my laptop rather than my .btinternet accounts.

Any ideas? I don't like WL Mail but have had a bad experience with Mozilla Thunderbird and don't want to switch.

Thanks!

[Mike6567]

No help I'm afraid but I have never worked out why when I get a new computer it downloads all my emails from the year dot (takes a while but can be useful).
I do have the box "Leave a copy of messages on the server" ticked so maybe this is something to do with it

[oldbeefer]

'
I do have the box "Leave a copy of messages on the server" ticked so maybe this is something to do with it'

I'd say that has EVERYTHING to do with it!

[Tableview]

Thanks for the input.

I also have the 'leave messages on server' ticked as I prefer to delete manually from the website what I don't want.

This is not the problem in my case as in the past the email client has always 'known' which emails have been previously downloaded onto the laptop, and won't download them again. For some reason, and I have not changed anything, it now starts downloading everything.

I have done the obvious things like rebooting, and it has made no difference.

[P.Pilcher]

I use an ancient copy of Outlook to download my e-mails onto two computers - my laptop and my old fashioned ancient tower unit which fires its output to a genuine CRT device!
My laptop e-mail sustem is set so it downloads any e-mails awaiting my attention but DOES NOT erase them from the server. It remembers which e-mails it has downloaded so if I do a fresh e-mail enquiry the old e-mails, still on the server are not downloaded again. My "mainframe" as I like to call it will then download all e-mails on the server when requested and delete them from this source. This is to ensure that every e-mail I have been sent will always be found in one place. It works for me.

P.P.

[green granite]

It sounds as though the mail live cookie is being deleted on exit, it may well be the security settings for public network use. (it would do it the first time from home after a trip as well)

[Tableview]

green granite's explanation makes sense but it's never happened before and I have been travelling with this laptop for years. Anyway, I have (hopefully) found a 'dirty' solution to the problem - I've let it download everything from the server onto the client, then deleted it. Hopefully it will 'remember' what it's already downloaded and I won't have to cope with this each time I travel.

Thank you!

[Tableview]

Milo : Does that mean that my PC and my laptop would synchronise?

If I change those settings, what will be the impact on the emails currently held on the two machines? One of the problems is that, because I use them for different purposes, the folders are different and they have different emails on them?

If so, I owe you a huge beer!

[Milo Minderbinder]

Yes they would

as to the existing mails..

You' have to set IMAP up as a new account on each machine (using the same user name/password), and then stop the old accounts diownloading new mails
Mail already in the OLD accounts would not be synchronised unless you moved it into the new IMAP folders.
Here the thing to do would be to set one machine up as IMAP, move the old mails into it to synchornise upwards, then setup the second machine, let that synchronise downwards, then add any mails from that to the mix to synchonise back up again. Tedious but it works
Anything you don't want to synch, simply leave in the old account folders
The tricky part is what to do with new mails
Best bet would be to copy anything you only want stored on one machine into a local folder, and then delete the original
However that very much defeats the purpose of IMAP (it also probably explains your recent problems if you have the "keep on server" flag set)
Far better to use unique e-mail addresses for the two purposes

[Tableview]

Thanks Milo, I've considered this and decided that rather than risk a total stuff-up, because I'm bound to screw it up, I'll stick to what I'm used too. I might set it up as you've suggested when I get a new laptop. Cheers!