Outlook Express & Android compatibility issue
 

I've got a new android after using a bberry for years. I'm able to link my verizon email account from outlook express to the android, but I'm having an issue with the replication of emails.

If the computer is on and outlook is open, I do not receive any emails on the android. If I turn off outlook express, new emails will go to the android but not the prior ones that were on outlook express.

I'm hoping there is a way to set it up that both the computer and the android content is current.

Calls to vzn and samsung weren't helpful as neither offers any support for outlook.

I haven't tried using my verizon email as just a webpage and dropping outlook express. The interface on outlook is better than the webmail on the verizon site.

Any ideas?

When you say Outlook Express do you mean Exchange, IMAP, or Pop?

Depending on what Android device you have you can set up your phone to receive and send emails in any of those 3 protocols.

I highly recommend Touchdown (silly name but works great) if you are on Exchange or IMAP.

I'm on POP on Outlook express

Outlook Express is downloading your emails to your computer, and deleting them from the server. This is the standard way that POP email works. Your phone can't see the emails OE has already downloaded because they sit on your computer, and not on Verizon's email server.

You have a couple of options:

1. Use IMAP instead of POP. Reconfigure Outlook Express to access your mailbox using IMAP, a more modern protocol that lets you leave mail on the server and manage it from multiple devices. <just checked: Verizon apparently doesn't support IMAP because it thinks this is 1997>

2. Continue using POP but set Outlook Express and your phone to leave mail on the server after it's been downloaded. Verizon only gives you about 2GB of space, so you may start bumping up against storage limits depending on how much email you get and what file attachments they have.

2.5. Continue using POP as now, and accept that when OE is off you can use your phone to check only for new email but when it is on, you may or may not get new messages before OE downloads them.

3. Migrate to a better email provider. I have used and loved Gmail for 7 or 8 years now. All email stays on the server and, as a bonus, your phone will sync to your Google calendar and contacts.


Also - be warned that your existing email in Outlook Express now lives only on your computer. If that email is important to you, be sure you back up your home computer regularly. If your hard drive crashes you will lose all your old emails.

To add to the Gmail comment. After you sign up for Gmail, you can set it up to access other mail accounts and automatically bring that mail into the Gmail inbox (either letting Google POP your Verizon email or forward your Verizon email to Gmail).

This way, you can easily transition away from one email provider to Gmail. I did this when I moved away from my old Bellsouth account. I didn't have to worry about people sending mail to the wrong address, and I could reply to messages sent to the Bellsouth account with my Gmail address.

Thanks for the suggestions and help. I've migrated over to gmail and it works great.