Hi, new to the forum.

Just started a new job and the outlook is a mess. I would very much like to clean it up but I barely know where to start.



For one thing there is one gmail address that all the email is coming to. However, there are two accounts in outlook: name@gmail and name@gmail(1). The first is a POP/SMTP and the second is IMAP/SMTP. Is there any good reason to have two accounts for the same email address?

Also, there are multiple sets of folders and they just confuse the issue. There should be one folder where everything comes and where everything is sent from. I notice that some emails come to one folder and not the other and it is very complicated checking all these folders when everything should be in one place. It is unclear to me why emails would show up in one set of folders and not the other but is that because of the way that the accounts are set up: with two accounts for the same email address I am guessing emails are actually handled differently but I don't know exactly why.

If I save copies of all of the pst files and get rid of all the folders and start again with folder organization will I be OK because nothing will get lost as long as I have the pst files? I am wondering about stuff like why there are two sets of "Personal Folders" in the folder organization.

This is probably as clear as mud but I hope someone can recommend where to start to clean this up.

Thanks!!!!

well, I can see I'm not getting any replies but maybe I can start here.

I went in to the data files for Outlook and I noticed that the files that I think should be the .pst files do not show the extension name but every data file that has a .pst extension also has a .tmp extension following it.

Can I assume that the data files that do not show the extension name are the actual .pst files and that the .pst.tmp files are just temporary backup files that Outlook is constantly creating for itself?

If I make copies of the data files that do not show the extension names, am I safe to manipulate my folders with the knowledge that all of my data is backed up and safe?

Double check the details of those two email accounts, if the logins are the same, it should be safe to remove one.

Check out the email rules (Tools > Rules and Alerts...), they control where to store each email, they probably do other things as well, examine one by one, if you understand what they do, you will know if it's OK to remove them.

BTW, Gmail is great. I would use Gamil's web interface if it's OK with my employer.

thanks matrix for your reply.

I decided that perhaps the best way for me to sort out some of this is to get the experience of creating a new account and a new folder collection from the ground up, since I have to do that anyway for my new account.

So the first thing I did was click on file and look for the new collection option and I don't see it. I looked at help several times and it appears that I'm supposed to see the new collection option in the file menu but the very first step I take doesn't seem to be supported by what I'm seeing with my own eyes.

Yikes!

Create a new folder first, then create a rule from Tools > Rules and Alerts, the rule works like "if the recipient address is your_new_email_address, move the email to new_folder." Anyway, you should check out Tools > Rules and Alerts, that's where you can filter your emails.