Download Mail for an Imap Account Using Outlook

By default, Microsoft Outlook only downloads the email headings when you are pulling messages off an IMAP server. By changing the setting to allow Outlook to download the entire message, you will be able to read through your IMAP mail account faster.

Steps

  1. Open MS Outlook.
  2. Go to Tools then Send/Receive.
    • Go to Send/Receive Settings
    • Then Define Send/Receive Groups
  3. Select the group that you would like to edit. The default setting that you should select is All Accounts.
  4. Highlight your selection and press Edit
  5. Point to the mail account on the left column that would like to change.
  6. Next highlight the sub-folder(s) in the Folder Options window, such as Inbox that you want the change to apply to.
  7. At this point you should be able to switch the Folder Options from the default of Download Headers Only to Download complete item including attachments
  8. Press OK.
  9. Then press Close.

Tips

  • The instructions were written using MS Outlook 2003 but should work in a substantially similar way for other versions of Outlook.
  • Download the complete message including attachments is the default setting Outlook uses for POP accounts.

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