Understanding what you need to know about Outlook email and why
On more then one occasion in the Microsoft Answers forum, have encountered various sentiments expressed by people looking for an answer to a particular along the lines of
“……I just want to use my email, don’t have the time or interest in learning about this techie stuff about whether an email account is POP3, IMAP (or whatever) or whether the data is stored in whatever PST and OST files are all about. Why doesn’t Outlook just deal with whatever it has to automatically.”
To be brutally honest (and a tad harsh for some), Outlook is nothing more then a tool to process things like email, contacts, calendar etc and all tools require some degree of familiarity unless you plan on having a friend or paid professional take care of everything.
The analogy to the above sentiment is somewhat equivalent to somebody saying “…….I just want to drive my car. Not interested in learning anything about what type of fuel it requires, type of breaking system, importance of maintaining lubricant levels etc. It should just adapt and deal with everything on its own and not waste my time with details I don’t understand”.
For those who want to get around in car, there are 3 basic choices, learn the fundamentals or leave everything to someone else and hire a chauffeur or use a cab. Really that simple. Some day in the future there might be the day when you can whistle for your car to come pick you up, get you to where your going by telling it and call 911 to bring it in for service when it’s “not feeling well” if it can’t get to the “Autopital” on its own – but we’re not quite there yet.
Email Components
So how does that analogy apply to an <Email Client> (which is what Outlook is so all of this applies to the use of any email client, nothing specific to Outlook)? To answer that, need to identify the 4 major elements of what goes into <email accounts> and <email clients> on a very simplistic level.
#1 – The server
This is where your email is received and gets sent from. Email servers are managed by Email Service Providers (ESP) who control the way (otherwise referred to as “protocol” in email jargon) in which the server can be accessed. Not every ESP manages their servers the same way nor does every email server support every protocol. ESP’s can change what protocols are supported. For instance, an ESP may decide that they are not longer going to support POP3 which you’ve been using for years.
#2 – The Protocol
There are a variety of ways that an email server can be accessed or to put this another way, different protocols can used to access the same server. The POP3 and IMAP protocols are industry standards defined sometime back in the late 1980’s while Exchange is a Microsoft specific protocol. These protocols apply to any email client connecting to the email server and the two must speak the same language in order to perform the required functions.
#3 – The Email Client
This is the program that connects to the server via a specific protocol. Every smartphone you own connects to an email server using a specific protocol via the email client the vendor has included with the device. As email clients evolve, the connection process gets more and more automated. The benefit being that users don’t need to know the details. The downside to that approach is that the protocol used via an automated process may not be what you want or expect.
#4 – Your data
Every email client on a desk/laptop whether it’s Outlook or any other (i.e. Thunderbird) stores your data in a set of files depending on the protocol used. In the case of Outlook, this data is stored locally in either a PST (Personal Storage) file or an OST (Offline Storage) file depending on the protocol being used
So why is all this email techno-babble important to you?
- some people don’t want any of their data stored on a server
- others want to be able to access their data from multiple devices
- critical to know what data needs to be backed up to avoid any kind of catastrophic loss. In a perfect world, nothing ever breaks or gets damaged but in a non-perfect world there is one thing that is absolutely certain, at some point, unless you are extremely lucky, you will absolutely encounter some kind of problem which can include anything from
– program malfunction
– catastrophic hard drive failure
– computer gets stolen, run over by a truck, or trashed by an inquisitive bear while you’re on a camping trip
– or it was a long night and computer became friends with a beer deciding to explore the landscapeWhen that problem happens it almost certainly will follow Murphy’s Law at the most inopportune time magnifying a minor issue into a catastrophic failure. Once an issue occurs is not the time to start learning what steps to follow for recovery since steps may not have been taken to recover anything from. In automotive analogy terms, not the time to start thinking about getting insurance after an accident just because you were never in one before.
Alternative to using an <Email Client>
An analogy similar to using a cab or hiring a chauffeur to get around, in the email world, all of the above can be avoided simply by using your browser to connect to your email account (otherwise referred to as <WebMail>). There is no need to know anything <protocols> or <data files>. The browser connects directly to the email account and all the data is stored on the server. The ESP decides what you can and can’t do with your browser (the user interface) while accessing the email account
When things change
If an ESP decides to make a change in terms of how an email account can be accessed, an <email client> cannot magically know (a) whether there is a problem that needs to be addressed or (b) the protocol is no longer available or (c) any combination of things that result in something not working as expected. In short, if an ESP suddenly decides that it no longer supports POP3 for accessing the email account which is how your existing <Email Client> is configured, the email client is not magically going to know that it should suddently change everything about the way the account is being accessed along with how the data is going to be stored.
Summary
The more you learn/know about the tools being used, the better equipped you are to ensure that everything works the way you want and recover from any unforeseen issue that may arise. In the parlance of the automotive analogy, if you don’t want to learn how to drive then perhaps it may be best not to buy a car unless you plan on having someone else drive for you.
Have intentionally stayed away from including any techno-speak in this article.For those interested in more detailed information, there are a variety of related articles in this blog some of which are:
- Understanding Email Protocols (POP, Imap, MAPI, EAS, Exchange)
- Understanding Outlook Email Account Configuration
- How to change an email account from/to POP/Imap
- How to Find & Copy the Right Outlook PST Files
- Creating an Outlook backup strategy
Category: Understanding Outlook
