Outgoing Only IMAP Account

More info as requested:

I have three accounts in Apple Mail, one Gmail (via POP3), and two related to my University. Unfortunately, my University departmental e-mail, which I use professionally, permits IMAP access only while on the local network, which means that if I setup an IMAP account, I can receive messages only while on campus and not while at home. My original workaround was to forward all departmental e-mails to Gmail. The problem is that when I am on campus with my laptop, I then get duplicates of my departmental messages in Apple Mail (one being retrieved directly from the server, and the other being retrieved from Gmail).

My latest solution has been to disable the departmental IMAP account entirely and to simply add this e-mail address as a second e-mail address (separated by a comma) in the Preferences pane for the Gmail account (as you suggested). The problem is that my iPhone 3G doesn't seem to support this ability to have one mail account with multiple e-mail addresses. Therefore, disabling the third (departmental) IMAP account meant losing the ability to send outgoing messages from my iPhone using my departmental e-mail.

EDIT: all three accounts (including GMail) are set up to use the University SMTP server (not the department one) for outgoing mail, so that's not an issue.

Message was edited by: Jamil Shariff

[quote]I am not the person to answer about use of the iPhone in this manner, but in Mail you can setup an account that will never check for New Mail, and have it be Offline, but its address can be used to send from, even though Offline.[/quote]

I'm curious what you mean by never check for new mail, and offline. Under Mail-->Preferences-->Accounts-->Advanced, there are two checkboxes:

"Enable this account"

and

"Include this account when checking for new mail"

When I deselect the second one, I find that new messages still eventually show up. They just aren't actively checked for like the other accounts. So that's no good.

When I deselect the first one, disabling the account, I find that I cannot send outgoing messages using the departmental e-mail address in Apple Mail (it doesn't appear in the drop down menu). So this is no good.

I also used to think that disabling the account meant that it was impossible to sync it an iPhone. However, I have just found out that disabling it merely automatically unchecks it in iTunes so that it is not synced. It is possible to go to iTunes and recheck it, so that the account is enabled on iPhone but disabled in Apple Mail.

My latest solution (just discovered) has been to leave the account enabled, but to cripple it by not entering my password in the Account Info section of the preference pane. This means that a little circle with a lightning bolt in it shows up next to the account name in Apple Mail indicating that something is wrong. It also means that incoming messages aren't retrieved (which is what I wanted). But it also means that the account still exists and is "enabled", meaning that I can send outgoing mail using its e-mail address. I'm going to leave it at that for now. If anybody has any input on a simpler solution, I am all ears.

Beautiful! That has the same effect as omitting the password, but is less lame. Thanks! I still have to use the omit the password crutch on iPhone, because it doesn't seem to have a "take mailbox offline" feature. The good news is that the erased password for this account on iPhone survives a sync with the enabled account on OS X. All is well (for now).