We receive a lot of questions from users who have multiple accounts in Outlook and want all mail in one folder, with one calendar and contacts folder:
I’m using Outlook with a Hotmail account and this works fine. I want to add a couple of other accounts, one is an Exchange account, the other one a POP3 and have all the e-mails delivered into my Hotmail account in Outlook. I added the Exchange account, however I have 2 different sets of folders listed and 2 different calendars. Is there any way to sort this out ?
While this question is specifically about Hotmail and Exchange server accounts, the answer applies to IMAP accounts as well.
For POP3 accounts, see Deliver two or more POP3 Accounts to the default personal folder file
Because Exchange, Hotmail, and IMAP are server-based accounts, you’ll have a data file for each email account. POP3 accounts can use a local data file or you can configure POP3 to deliver to the same folder as a Exchange, Hotmail, or IMAP account. However, if you do, all messages will be uploaded to that mailbox on the server.
You can’t change the delivery location for Hotmail Connector or IMAP accounts. If you want the mail delivered to a different folder, you’ll need to configure the accounts as POP3 accounts. See Online Services in Outlook for the instructions needed to configure Hotmail as a POP3 account. You can use rules to move the messages to local folder, but rules don’t work well with IMAP accounts.
While it is possible to change the folders Exchange uses for delivery, it will delete the mail from the Exchange server (and upload it to your Hotmail account). This can make a mess of your Exchange calendar, moving appointments and meeting requests to the Hotmail calendar.
Using a Hotmail Connector account to hold mail from other accounts can also result in all replies coming from the Hotmail address. Only the Outlook profile that moved the mail into the Hotmail account will reply from the account that downloaded the email.
The same applies to POP3 accounts: if you deliver POP3 to the Hotmail Connector folder, it will upload all the mail to the Hotmail server and replies may come from your Hotmail account, not the POP3 account.
We recommend using separate data files for each account and putting the folders you use the most on the Favorite Mail folder. Calendars and contacts can be moved to a new group then collapse the group to hide the folders, but you may still have a few things created in those folders. See Using Navigation Pane-Groups if you need instructions for creating groups in the Navigation pane.
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8 Comments on "Using Multiple IMAP or Outlook.com Accounts and Data Files (*.pst)"
Thank you. I have emails going into one inbox, but I too want to seperate. Initially they were set up at POP and now IMAP. The option to choose which folder emails are delivered to is not showing. Outlook 2016 office 365 working with live.ca account and 3 others hosted by GreenGeeks TY
When you use imap, you can't choose where to deliver the email - it always goes into the imap account's own data file. You would need to use rules to move the mail to another folder.
I recently added a new email to outlook 2016. The data file for my account was from a personal Hotmail account. I was trying to switch it to an IMAP account hosted by GoDaddy. The Imap account kept coming up with an error. so we attempted to create pop 3 and set it as the data file. The default data file didn't change, but now all of my emails from all accounts have been synced to my hotmail account. I'm assuming this is what you meant by "However, if you do, all messages will be uploaded to that mailbox on the server" Is it possible to correct the issue. We would like to set the default to the IMAP account as we do a lot of mail merge from Word, and we need it to send from the right address and regardless of which email is set as default in the email tab, it still sends from the hotmail account. Any help would be appreciated.
You can set the imap email address as default, and can set the data file as the default if using 2013/2016, but it will create new calendar & contacts folders. Fortunately, just setting it as default in File, Account Settings, Email should be enough for mail merge to work.
What error did you get trying to add imap? Does your account SUPPORT IMAP? (Godaddy has some pop-only accounts - i have several there.)
I've got the opposite problem, I want separate data files. I had one for mail (POP) and one for an Outlook.com calendar (on an EAS server). My account has now migrated to the new Outlook thing so I added that one using Auto Account and then removed the EAS one. Somehow Outlook has now combined the mail/POP account and the Outlook account into one data file. It still lists two accounts in the settings but it only shows one set of folders on the nav pane, and it seems to be trying to upload all 5000+ messages from my POP server to the Outlook account.
How do I separate them again?? Or is my only option to remove and re-add both accounts?
it definitely should not be trying to upload the items in the pst - it only syncs the data file it creates. You'd need to import the pst for it to upload.
In File, Account Settings, Data file tab, do you have both the pst and the data file for your outlook.com account listed?
When you select the pop account on the Email tab (still in Account Settings), it is set to deliver to the Inbox in the pst?
I have a MSN account, that i have used for years. I have Outlook 2010 on my windows XP laptop. I was having major issues with syncing contacts. I had to have my OS reinstalled and thought this would give me a chance to clean things up. I deleted ALL contacts in my MSN address book.When i did a reinstall of Outlook i pulled contacts from the saved PST file. HOwever, when i try to sync my ipad thru itunes, my ipad shows a different number of contacts than my Outlook. iPad doesnt seem to be adding new contacts.
is iTunes configured to use the contacts in the pst?