A few days ago I caught a glitch on MS Windows server - MS Outlook 2016 stopped correctly synchronizing mail via IMAP from a Linux server (Dovecot + Exim). The problem: i send a letter on my mailbox (from anywhere), then wait, and there's a bit of magic: if the cursor is on the Inbox folder mail arrives immediately. If any other folder is active, for example, Deleted Items or Sent Items the letter does not arrive no matter how long you wait for it. Timer also doesn't work ("Send / Receive" settings, where the standard 30 minutes can be changed). Then I click on the Inbox folder and all the letters arrive immediately.
What has been tried:
- Deleting Outlook Profile Deleting and re-creating accounts,
- Outlook safe mode,
- Scanpst,
- Firewalls off,
- Antiviruses off,
- Rollback to Outlook 2013,
- Reinstall Office or Fix Office installation,
- clean Windows user profile,
- changing root folder to INBOX, Inbox,
- unsubscribe and subscribe to IMAP folders,
- Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant.
None of the above helped.
At first I thought that the problem was with the mail server on Linux, but there were no updates and configuration did not change. Then, there may be a problem with Windows Server, where Outlook is installed, but I reproduced exactly the same bullshit on home Windows 10 + MS Office 2016 and even with other IMAP mail server like Gmail.
I asked my friends to test their Outlook behavior - the same thing. If the active folder is different from the Inbox, then the letters will not come. Other programs, for example, Mozilla's Thunderbird, work like a charm: if you send a letter, it comes right away. Even mobile Outlook at Android works fine...
Deleting and recreating PST profile in Outlook 2013 help only till Outlook restart, then in fails again.
I even tried Outlook 2010 - it works perfectly! But it too old to use.
Where is the problem? I'm tired trying fixing this..
Upd. Found interesting link, saying that: .. there are two synchronization options: using IMAP IDLE (also known as "Live Sync") and creating schedules for subscribed folders. You can use IMAP IDLE to maintain the connection to the IMAP server and apply changes that you make to the read, unread, or flagged status of messages on the server. But you can maintain the connection to only one folder at a time. You can also create schedules that synchronize your subscribed folders in Outlook with the IMAP mail server.
That means Outlook cannot sync different folders an once, but how did it work before? O_o
But this is about Mac version.
