Desktop search and Imap - having problems

deadgoodundies · Apr 20, 2010

At our office we use Copernic Desktop professional, Outlook 2007 and Mdaemon mail server.

Im slowly wanting to change all email accounts over to IMAP so that we can all check out emails when out and about and any replies etc. will be synced.

That's all fine and dandy but im having problems getting a desktop search like copernic to index contents of emails so we can search easily.

If a keyword search term is in the subject or email address then no problem but if the word is actually within in the body of the email then it's not being found.

Is it going to be the case that although we want to access emails directly on the server rather than downloading (as you would with pop3 ) we will have to just download them to the PC so they can be searched or am I missing something?

andav · Apr 20, 2010

If you use IMAP and Outlook emails are automatically synced to your PC so you should be able to search from within Outlook.

However it would be easier to search using your webmail (depending on your provider) which searches the server directly.

deadgoodundies · Apr 20, 2010

Hi,
Hmm nope even within outlook it will only search subject and not body

Prefer to use our own in office mail server rather than external as it makes my life easier and safer.

andav · Apr 20, 2010

I just double checked this using a pc here and searches are conducted in subject and body with imap.

Maybe your server has been setup to store in separate locations. That is a problem with storing PST files though - they cause problems!

Why do you say life is safer and easier storing locally? Running your own mail server often takes up much more time than people realise with updates, filtering software, storage requirements etc. Like in this example! You could find emails in an instant using a hosted server

KM-Tiger · Apr 21, 2010

Hosted SharePoint said:
Maybe your server has been setup to store in separate locations.

The whole point of IMAP is that emails are stored on the server, not on the client. Functionality to search server side is built into the IMAP protocols, but I've no idea how Outlook implements those, if it does at all.

The other consideration is that different IMAP servers will deal with search in different ways. If indexing is not done then searches will be slow with a large number (000's) of emails. I don't know Mdaemon, it might have the ability to turn indexing on/off, and do it in different ways. Indexing is processor intensive so there is usually a trade off to find the right balance.

Unless the OP is wed to Outlook it would be worth considering Thunderbird, as that definitely will search server side with IMAP, and if indexed will be lightning fast even with a large mail spool. With the various extensions it's a good business tool.

deadgoodundies · Apr 21, 2010

I'll have to look at it deeper and have a look at the Mdaemon forums.
Main thing I want to get done is get copernic working with imap , just so I can centralise all my searches across desktop files and email rather than have to go to two places for searching.

No problem with using thunderbird as I use that one on my laptops and only reason I use outlook is because of calendar and syncing contacts with mobile devices. so if I can still accomplish that using thunderbird I would prefer to use that anyway.

deadgoodundies · Apr 21, 2010

Outlook seems to be working ok with search now - because i've got 6 years of emails it seems that it just hadn't indexed everything.

Now to see what copernic is like

andav · Apr 22, 2010

KM-Tiger said:
The whole point of IMAP is that emails are stored on the server, not on the client.

Wasnt the question about email that had been setup previously pop3? Hence my reference to location. I probably got my wires cross though

deadgoodundies · Apr 22, 2010

I copied all my pop3 emails (stored locally in the .pst) over to the imap mail server in the office (mdaemon) and junked outlook 2007 and installed thunderbird.

Search is working but it's only because thunderbird by default when installed has all the folders as subscribed so it also downloads a local copy of every email.

When I get a bit more time i'll try and work it out a bit more but im not going to waste another full days work trying to figure it out just now.