I use Outlook 2007 on my Desktop with a number of different Pop3 E:Mail addresses, a Calendar, Rules and VBA programs. My data is all held in a PST file on my O: Drive. This all works fine and with no problem.

I have recently installed a Lima "network" device so that I can access my files, data and programs from my Laptop & other home devices. If I move my .PST file from my O: Drive to my Lima L: Drive, I assume I will see no difference (though I will probably have to make some program modifications as there seem to be issues with upper & lower case file names on the Lima, but that's a problem for me to address ...)

So, now to the point of this post ... at the moment if I need to access those E:Mails from my laptop, I do it through the GMail online page, which is horrendous and obviously does not reflect any of my the Rules or VBA programs, or via Teampick, which works, but can be awkward.

If I move the PST file to the L: drive as I mention above and then set up Outlook on the laptop to access it identically to the Desktop, will the Desktop & the Laptop work in the same way or am I going to run into contention problems ?!? Will my Calendar be identical on both machines (I assume that would be the least of my problems) ?



I'm not interested in accessing these E:Mails from my phone or other devices, I basically want my Laptop to mirror my Desktop and really want to know if this is viable or if, as I question, I will get conflicts or any other problems ?!?

Thanks in advance for any help ...

In theory it should be OK to have the PST in a common network location, as long as you don't try to access it from both machines at the same time. It is strictly a single user application file. You will need to copy the file to the common location then one PC at a time, open the file from Outlook, set it as the default data source and then close the original. Close Outlook and any application accessing Outlook and then repeat for the other PC.

With laptops particularly, you may hibernate/sleep with Outlook running. That will cause a problem when the laptop is next started if accessed on the other OC in the interim, so ensure that you always shut down Outlook completely before hibernating the laptop.

Make sure that you always have a good backup of the PST in case you screw it up.

__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Thank you, gmayor, the backup is a must, yes, I have a lot of stuff going through there that I don't want to jeopardise ... I'm going to have to figure out how best to do this then, so I don't have Outlook open on both machines at the same time

It's a good starting point though, so thanks again

EDIT ...

Do you think (or know) if I would be able to invoke a VBA program on Outlook startup that would check if Outlook was already running on my other machine (I will only ever be doing this from the Laptop or the Desktop, so the check would be on the other machine presumably via the Home Network, this isn't something that needs future proofing or expansion ...) and Exit it if so ? It's something I think I will look into, so if there's anything you know that will help with that, or inhibit the possibilities (i.e. if it's not possible !!!) then please let me know, thanks ...

Outlook should inform you if the PST is in use. I am more concerned about the laptop being hibernated with Outlook open, then the PST is accessed while it is in hibernation, from the other PC. I am not sure that will warn you, and then when you restart fom hibernation, the data has been altered. I fear that may result in corruption of the database.

__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com