I am running Outlook 2013, which I (sometimes) use to read my IMAP email. However, I can see using the server-based mail reader (squirrelmail) that Outlook is not properly syncing my Inbox folder – Outlook thinks there are 89 messages, but there are really 91. I can't see any way to "force refresh" the list of messages for an Outlook folder?
Outlook IMAP folder out of sync
imapmicrosoft-outlookmicrosoft-outlook-2013
Related Solutions
If you try the steps above and still don't see an All Mail folder, manually create one. Right-click and select "Process Marked Headers" on the context menu, and the folder will populate.
Honestly, the easiest method I have found (if you want to keep a similar client) is to install Windows Live Mail, and use that instead of Outlook. I had HUGE issues with getting my folders to sync (would hold up for hours) due to the immense size. I had originally used a POP account, then moved over to IMAP with GoDaddy, transferring ALL my old emails over for ease of searching. Anyway, Outlook 13 was an absolute FAIL. After trying Windows Live Mail, I found it synced within 15 seconds after all the emails were downloaded initially (took FOREVER for the initial download). The only problem that I had with Windows Live Mail, the received and sent dates were listed as the day of the original upload. After some reading, found that deleting the email account from Windows Live Mail, then downloading all the emails into Thunderbird would reset the dates to the correct date, then reconfiguring the account in Windows Live Mail, the dates were now correct (still don't understand how it works, but it did). I love the ease of Windows Live Mail. It very closely mimics Outlook in both looks and feel, but without the lengthy hang-ups. I still don't understand causes Outlook to hang so severely with the IMAP folders, but I really don't care, now that I have a FAST alternative. I would simply suggest to anyone, just make sure all the emails are downloaded in Thunderbird BEFORE setting up the account in windows live mail. It took 5 hours for all the emails to download the first time, and that was truly 5 hours of wasted time, since I had to do it all over again anyway!! Hope this helps someone in future searches on the issue of getting rid of the inefficiency of Outlook with IMAP servers. Good Luck!!
Best Answer
I have tried multiple times to use my IMAP account with Outlook 2013, but it has gotten irreversibly out of sync each time. So it would appear that Outlook '13 is at this point completely unusable with IMAP. Maybe I'll reconsider using it when Office SP1 or SP2 comes out.