Sent Items when using IMAP

Understanding how sent emails are handled

By default many email programs will place sent messages in your local folder store, rather than in the IMAP folder store. This means that if you login from multiple locations you will not be able to view emails sent from different machines.

In order to force your email program to automatically place sent messages into the Sent folder you should make sure you set the root folder path. Correctly setting the Root folder path and ensuring the relevant options are selected in most email programs will result in the desired functionality, however Outlook does not support it and we must execute a work around:

Outlook work around

Outlook does not support the ability to automatically place Sent messages in the IMAP Sent folder. You will need to set-up a “rule” in Outlook in order to make this work. NB This method will work for Outlook XP running in Internet Mail Only mode. Outlook 2000 has many known issues with IMAP and we recommend you either upgrade or use an alternative email program. To determine your installation type, click About Microsoft Outlook on the Help menu. 

In Outlook click on your Inbox and then from the Tools menu click Rules Wizard…

Rules wizard image 2

You will now see the Rules Wizard screen. Make sure “Apply changes to this folder” has the correct account selected, then click the New… button.

Rules wizard image 3

Click on the circle next to “Start from blank rule”, click “Check messages after sending”, then click the Next… button.

Rules wizard image 4

Put a tick in the box for the rule condition titled “Use the form name form” then click once on the underlined text called “form name” in the rule description box.

Rules wizard image 5

From the drop down box select “Application forms”.

Rules wizard image 6

In the list of forms, scroll down to find the “Message” form, click to select it.

Rules wizard image 7

Click the Add -> button and Message will appear in the right hand view under “Selected forms”. Now click the Close button.

Rules wizard image 8

Your display should look like this:

Rules wizard image 9

Click the Next… button.

On the next screen put a tick in the box next to “Move a copy to the specified folder. Click once on the underlined text called “specified” in the rule description box.

Rules wizard image 10

Expand your IMAP folders and select the “Sent” folder. Click the OK button. NB Your Sent folder may be called something different depending on how you have set-up your system.

Rules wizard image 11

Your display should look like this:

Rules wizard image 12

Click the Next button twice.

On the final screen of the wizard enter a suitable name for the rule (anything you like), make sure there is a tick in the “Turn on this rule” box and click the Finish button.

Rules wizard image 13

The wizard will complete and you will be returned to the rules display:

Rules wizard image 15

Click the OK button and return to Outlook

To complete the final step in this process, select Tools, then Options from Outlook. On the first tab, called Preferences, click the button called E-mail Options…

Rules wizard image 16

In the E-mail Options screen make sure you remove the tick from the box called “Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder”. Click the OK button.

Rules wizard image

Click the OK button in the Options screen to return to Outlook and complete the process. From now on all sent messages should be stored in your IMAP folders.