outlook 2016 on Mac - "Mailbox already exists" error.

Happy to report that after the most recent Office 365 update my outlook problems with my IMAP Comcast accounts seems to have gone away!  So happy. If you have not yet done so, install this latest update immediately!!!

After spending the last week with this exact same issue as described numerous times on this thread ("Mailbox already exists" Error) I found a solution that seems to be working for me that is not previously recommended here.

I'm on a Macbook Pro Sierra 10.12.5 and Outlook for Mac Version 15.35 (170610).

Under: Outlook > Preferences > Accounts 

Select your IMAP Email Account of Choice.  I have 3 different IMAP Accounts.  1 is my personal Gmail (with 80,000 emails and 50 folders) and 2 others are Rackspace Hosted IMAP accounts for business (one of which has 100,000 emails and 150 folders).  

After clicking your IMAP Account of choice click:

Advanced > Server > UNCHECK "Sync all IMAP folders every 10 minutes".

CHECK "Use IMAP Idle (if the server supports it).  

It is worth pointing out that after some searching, both Gmail and Rackspace do support IMAP Idle.  

This is the Gmail Link:

https://superuser.com/questions/1069805/does-google-allow-third-party-email-apps-to-establish-and-maintain-an-imap-idle

This is the Rackspace link:

https://community.rackspace.com/products/f/28/t/557

I especially like that Rackspace goes into detail about the benefits of IMAP Idle which seemed to help bypass some of the recommended resolutions on this thread related to "Increasing your Sync interval to 15 Minutes" etc...  IMAP Idle seems to bypass this altogether:

Normally with IMAP connections when you want to update your mail/folders you will have to push the changes by pressing a “Send/receive” button, or have the application automatically send/receive every so often based on settings. With the IMAP Idle feature, once you make the initial connection it will be able to receive updates from the mailbox in real-time, being able to receive new mail, or send mail without needing to constantly press send/receive. One of the major reasons this is beneficial (other than the real time updates) is that the mailbox does not need to check every folder when you send/receive, reducing time spent updating and decreasing usage of the application.

Other benefits of IMAP Idle

•          Checks for updates on folders automatically instead of needing the user or application to manually check for changes. (IMAP Idle will at first only keep the folder you are using updated, but it will eventually spread out to keep other folders updated. If a user has lots of folders, this could take a while and may not update all folders instantaneously.)
•          Since it is a live connection it will communicate any changes on the client or server and replicate the change. Compare this to Send/receive where it has to check every folder for any changes each time you request a send/receive. (This vastly decreases the power cost since it is able to communicate the specific changes as they happen instead of needing to check every folder for any changes. This decreases application usage, and vastly increases battery life on mobile devices since they will not need to constantly check all folders.)

My Outlook for Mac worked flawlessly for 6 months and then out of the blue, the Inbox emails deleted and only "some" (not all) of my folders would be missing from only the Rackspace email accounts (I never had this issue with Gmail).  I initially had my Sync interval at 2 minutes.  

After a crash, I completely removed both Rackspace IMAP accounts and re-added them.  It worked for about a day then the Inbox deleted again, folders deleted, and I got the same "Mailbox already exists" error.  

Reading the posts on here, I then tried upping the sync interval to 15 minutes.  That didn't help either as my Inbox once again crashed, was emptied / deleted, and folders deleted again.  

Only since removing and re-adding the Rackspace IMAP accounts a 3rd time now, then letting ALL emails in all folders download (I probably have 100,000 emails across 150 folders) I unchecked "Sync All IMAP Folders" and selected "Use IMAP Idle" and Outlook seems to actually be running better than ever before.  I hope this solution will continue to work and that it will be useful to others with the same issue.

Len - thanks for sharing this detailed reply on "IMAP Idle" chock full of specific info. It's great food for thought.

No problem.  Unfortunately my update is that even after switching to IMAP Idle, and Outlook for Mac working well for about 2 hours this morning, the same error still reared it's ugly head:

Mailbox Already Exists

Even before it crashed, I'm not sure it was working well enough.  Seems like it was taking too long for folders to update or for me to be notified of new unread messages in folders.  

After the 4th time in 4 days during a busy work day, I've officially given up on Outlook for Mac.  Typical Microsoft quality I guess.  I bought a Mac to get away from Microsoft, and now I remember why.  

I'm on to Mac Mail.  I don't like how Mac Mail separates your Inbox, and I don't like that there are no keyboard commands for moving messages (in Outlook you CMD + SHIFT + M then type your folder name and press Enter).

But Mac Mail is superior in many other ways.

• easier scheduling in iCal
• easier addition of contacts stores in iCloud
• view attachments in-line in body of email without having to click or open them
• clearer organization of replies and forwards on email thread
• faster, smoother, more reliable, has never crashed
• emails send and receive/appear very quickly
• drag and drop to move emails to folders is faster and smoother than Outlook

So while it doesn't "look" as pretty, it at least works.  So I'm making due.  It's not worth spending any more time deleting and adding my accounts in Outlook just to keep getting this stupid "Mailbox Already Exists" error which cripples the entire email client.

I'm surely sorry to hear that IMAP Idle wasn't a resolution to your issues, and trying Apple's Mail app might be a useful alternative (even if not ideal).

I've hung in there with MS Office 365 including Outlook for now, though my "Mailbox already exists" errors went away when I down-sized my InBox. I haven't seen the problem for many months, though experience tells me that Outlook - even when run on a Windows environment - has "quirks" when the Mailbox files becomes (for Microsoft) oversized.

My reasoning for trying to make Outlook work - beyond liking the categories and views it provides across multiple devices (Mac, iPad and iPhone) has been it's better ability to handle meeting invites. I have found it better at that task than Mail on my Mac, or BusyCal. And since I keep the family's itinerary via my calendar, it remains a critical feature for me.

A downside has definitely been receiving invites from others (e.g., Gmail .ics invites or 3rd party subscribed calendars) which automatically associate with Apple's Calendar app, not Outlook. I have never found a way aroudn this, beyond having the sender re-do the invite to my outlook.com address (whichI don't advertise or use for emailing).

I'll be very interested to hear how your conversion to Apple's Mail and Calendar apps works out for you. For now, it also represents my fall-back position, for that time in the future when the "Mailbox already exists" issue resurfaces for me.

Doug