On occasion, I use the web mail offered by my ISP to sent my email when away from home or use my phone to send an email which also places its sent items in web mail on the server.
How do I get these sent messages in web mail to become available in Outlook as well?
This is what happens when you use POP3 as POP3 can only download from your main mailbox folder of your web mail. To see all folders, you could switch to an IMAP, Exchange or Live Hotmail account type, but for the sake of this tip we are going to assume that you prefer to continue to use POP3 in Outlook or that IMAP, Exchange or Live Hotmail simply isn’t available or an option to you.
Two methods
In that case, there are 2 easy methods to get your Sent Items of your web mail and into Outlook as well. The quick and dirty fix is to send yourself a copy via the BCC field whenever you use your web mail. The other option, which also allows you to get your already existing sent messages in web mail into Outlook, is to move all your Sent Items on the server to the Inbox folder. As Outlook will then find these new messages in your Inbox folder, Outlook will download them from the server.
Get your own Sent Items out of the Inbox
Of course, this will leave you with your Sent Items in the Inbox in Outlook which you (most likely) don’t prefer either. This can be fixed with a simple rule;
Apply this rule after the message arrives
from youraddress@domain.com
move it to the Sent Items folder
and mark it as read
and stop processing more rules
Note: If you like to send yourself notes every now and then which you like to receive in your Inbox folder, you can modify the rule by adding the exception;
except when sent to youraddress@domain.com
This rule works best when it is listed as the first rule to be executed. You can find the rules creation wizard by going to;
- Outlook 2007 and previous
Tools-> Rules and Alerts - Outlook 2010
File-> Manage Rules & Alerts
The "Move Sent Items from Web mail" rule configured in Outlook.
(click on image to enlarge)