Gmail via Outlook?

Drez

Hi, so, of course I know you can do this. I haven't used a mail app for personal use for a loooooooooooong time. My primary email account is Gmail and I really like the web interface, but I have Office 365 and a brand new computer so I was thinking of setting up Outlook after probably 15 years of not using it.

My primary concern is that I do not want emails deleted from the server which, last time I used Outlook I believe was the default behavior. I like having the option of continuing to access my entire email history via the web interface. Anything I need to worry about as I launch Outlook to configure the Gmail account? Do I need to turn that auto-deletion off or anything?

Echo

Caveat: I don't know shit about Outlook.

What you probably want to do is to add Gmail as an IMAP account - POP3 is the protocol where the client downloads the emails from the mail server, IMAP is the one where they're still left on the mail server and accessed via the IMAP client,

Donnicton

You can set Outlook up to access your e-mails via IMAP

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229

or POP

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828

IMAP functions fairly close to how Exchange normally works with Outlook(e.g. every command processed as it's placed), and does not delete the copies on the server unless you change it to do otherwise. POP by default connects only long enough to download copies to your computer and process queued commands, and deletes the originals unless you change it to do otherwise.

IMAP and POP serve two distinctly different purposes, but safe rule of thumb is go with IMAP when given the choice. POP was designed for when dial-up connectivity and mail server storage space was a concern so unless you're in a painfully rural area, nearly every reason it exists no longer applies today.

Disenchanter

last time I tried using outlook with my gmail account I ran into issues because Outlook doesn't support 2 factor authentication, so my choice was to disable it for Gmail or don't use Outlook, things may have changed but this was within the last year.

Shadowfire

Even with 2FA you should be able to set up a one time use application password to get it running.

BlindZenDriver

Is there some special reason you want to use Outlook? If not I would suggesting avoiding it like the plague it is.
If it is because you want a mail client on a PC then instead go with Thunderbird, it may not look as sleek as Outlook on first look only there is more power so searching and stuff works much better with Thunderbird.

Aridhol

Depending on use outlook is MUCH more fully featured.
Not all Microsoft products are good but Outlook itself, especially the last 2-3 iterations is pretty damn good.

Also yes, you can use IMAP.

If you have multiple email addresses I personally like having different profiles instead of say folders on one profile but that's a personal preference.

Shadowfire

Outlook-Thunderbird is like Office-LibreOffice. The free competitor is good, but it's but powerful. It does the job but the paid for software costs money for a reason.